The land of 1000 scares
by Tididooo
Summary: The team crashes on a very weird and dangerous planet. With the Milano temporary out of action and limited amunition, they will have to rely on each other to survive.
1. 01- A sensational debut

LAND OF 1000 SCARES

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 _Hi guys! It's been a while._

 _First, I'd like to say that I just saw Vol.2 on theater yesterday and it's as awesome as I thought it would be. I'm walking on a little cloud of joy right now._

 _As for the following story, I found the prompt below on the Guardians of the Galaxy kink meme on livejournal and I really hope the person who submitted it about 3 years ago will like it if he/she happens to read it. At first I thought it would be my usual short fiction but the thing took a life of its own and became the longest work I've ever written in both English and my birth language._

 _Also, I started working on it almost exactly a year ago (I'm a very slow writer) and we didn't have any information about what Vol.2 would be like at the time, so some details here won't be Vol.2 canon, especially the technology they have access to._

 _The story is complete, I will try to post one chapter per week. I hope you'll enjoy it and feel free to leave a comment (or multiple ones! ^^)._

 _ **PROMPT: I'm imagining a planet of creepy Gollum-y things but it can be anything. Just something kind of scary where the Milano is temporarily out of action, they're fighting with limited ammunition, and the entire planet is hostile and terrifying.**_

 _ **Some scariness would be nice, some peril, team looking out for each other, maybe being captured or imprisoned, I'm just interested to see the team in a scary situation that they cannot immediately fly/fight away from.**_

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 **1 - A sensational debut.**

"Okay guys, hang on to anything you can, landing's going to be rough!" Peter exclaimed through gritted teeth while trying his best not to crash the Milano on a planet that freaking appeared out of thin air.

Two seconds before, they were on their way to Knowhere after completing a boring but lucrative mission on Guna, gently flowing through the emptiness of space. Then everything took a reddish hue and if it wasn't for Quill's fast reflexes, they would have been splattered on the side of a gigantic and arid mountain like a mosquito on a windshield.

Peter quickly swerved the ship to the left, only missing what looked like a petrified forest by a few inches. Well, considering the ear-splitting scraping sound which came from under them, he might not have missed it at all. Awesome.

The ground was approaching way too fast now, and there was not much he could do apart from keeping the Milano as horizontal as possible and aiming for a surface plane enough to land on. Various alarms were blaring in the cockpit, one of them literally screaming " _ **you're screwed!**_ " If they got out of this alive, Peter would have a word with Rocket about that. Not funny, dude.

The ship finally touched ground with violence, ricocheted a few times and then carried on sliding on the rocky surface, shaking and shrieking, until it stopped only a few inches away from a very pointy and very deadly branch of a gigantic petrified tree. Peter's brain choose not to register the fact that if the ship had continued to slide in that direction, he would have become a Quill-kebab and focused on the basics like, for instance, breathing very loudly and being relieved that he didn't pee himself.

"Well… That was something. Everyone okay?" For the first time since all Hell broke loose, he glanced at his friends. Drax and Gamora were paler than usual, both still firmly gripping on their armrests. Rocket looked flabbergasted, eyes unfocused and jaw hanging down, and Groot looked uh, like Groot. But a little bit shocked. Apart from that, they all seemed perfectly healthy.

Rocket shook himself and took a deep breath. "Quill… WHAT THE FLARKIN' HELL?"

"I don't know, man. One second we were in space and a second after we were on this planet. I mean..." He tried to access their itinerary on the main computer but the thing wouldn't cooperate. "It's like the planet teleported itself on our way. Have any of you heard of something like that?"

"Planets cannot teleport themselves, Quill." Gamora said, brushing stray hair out of her face.

"That you know of. That could be an explanation for our situation, because I know I didn't make any mistake with our flight plan. And even if I did, the thing just materialised out of thin air!"

"I did not detect a thinness nor a thickness quality to the air that could…"

"Figure of speech, Drax."

"It didn't materialise alone." Rocket's voice sounded distant, as if he was lost in his thoughts.

"What do you mean?" Peter said while crouching under the board to access the main computer's parts and wires.

"There's natural light, moron, and long shadows. That means there's got to be a sun somewhere behind us. And I see at least two moons from here. "

"So… either a solar system jumped right in front of us, or we got somewhat sucked into a wormhole and landed here. Ouch!" Peter shook his newly burnt hand and sucked his finger.

"All this yammering is not getting us out of this place. I suggest we assess the damages the ship sustained in the crash first." Drax said, stretching his back and arms.

Peter extricated himself from under the console. "Yeah, you're right. Rocket, see if you can get this damn thing to reboot, while Gamora and I go outside and check the fuselage for breaches. Drax, there's an emergency box with some stuff we might need for the repairs under my bunk, bring it to Rocket and then check if everything is in order."

"Your bunk is never in order and it is neither the time nor my role to clean it."

Peter ruffled his hair, sighing. "I meant check if the crash caused any damage inside the ship as well, buddy."

Drax smiled. "Then I will do it, my friend."

"I am Groot!"

"No, I didn't forget you, Groot. Would you mind assisting Drax with everything?"

"I am Groot."

"Thanks. Gamora?" He turned around but she was nowhere to be seen. "Wha...?"

"She's way ahead of you, Star-dork." Rocket said from under the console.

Peter chuckled on his way out. Gamora's stealth was still a great source of awe for him, even though it had been approximately a year since they defeated Ronan on Xandar and became the Guardians of the Galaxy. He couldn't believe the name had stuck, but it did, and they got quite the reputation.

He stepped out, and was almost blinded by the flaming arc of light which occupied at least one third of the skyline in front of him. Rocket was right; the planet had come with a sun which was either very close to it or very, very big. Through his half closed eyes and shielding hand, he could see the coronal loops dancing on the red star's surface, and that was just the tip of it. Around him, the sky was a reddish gray with three big moons floating above them. As far as he could see in the blinding light, they had crashed on a desert which was not surprising considering the intense heat coming from the star. He hoped the thing was setting instead of rising, or else they'd soon be fried. The landscape reminded him of Morag, minus the rain and geysers. Everything was sharp black rocks, red dry earth and pointy mountains. Hell, even the trees were made of stone. If they didn't get out of here fast, water would become a problem.

"We need to find some water." Gamora said behind him, echoing his thoughts.

"Yeah. But first, the hull." He turned over to take a proper look at his beloved ship. The bottom part of the fuselage was badly scraped and bumped, for lack of a better word. Flattened might have been more adequate. "Damn..."

Gamora put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Maybe it is not as bad as it looks. Come with me."

Meanwhile, Rocket was fighting with the cables and circuits composing the Milano's subsystem. The good thing was that the life support system was intact and functioning. The bad thing was that despite his best efforts, he couldn't get the altitude control nor the command and data handling to reboot.

Drax and Groot were back from their investigations with positive news, as it seemed that beside some of his and Peter's personal junk (they were both the hoarders of the team), nothing was broken beyond repair. And Peter's emergency box had proven to be useful. To think of all the bombs he could have built if he had known they had all this stuff was… was… maybe the reason why Peter hadn't told him about the box. Yeah. Stupid hummie could be smart sometimes, go figure.

"I am Groot?"

"Yeah, good idea… Hold this while I put this cable here and..."

" _ **You're screwed! You're screwed! You're screw-**_ "

"Yep, not such a good idea after all."

"I find this new alarm of yours to be irksome, friend."

"Oh, come on big guy, that's exactly why it's funny!" Rocket laughed a little. So what if the team didn't like his sense of humor? Life was a joke anyway. If it made him laugh, that's what mattered in the end.

"I am Groot."

"Okay, okay, I'll change it you big dummies." He unplugged a wire and plugged it on another slot. "There. Y'all happy now?"

All the lights flickered in the cockpit for a few seconds, and then the main computer made a booting sound. Rocket got up and scratched his head as he watched the screens coming back to life. "Huh."


	2. 02- Bad Company

**2 – Bad company**

After maybe half an hour of careful inspection with Gamora's help, the assessment of the situation was "not good, but not desperate". The left wing had taken most of the damage. The elevons and rudders were broken and the top winglet was missing. One of the feather mechanisms was also seriously jammed. Peter was currently sitting astride one of the stabilizers and carefully disengaging rocks and bits of fossilized tree from one of the rocket engines, while Gamora was on the ground, welding a broken rudder with a blowtorch from Peter's emergency box.

The former Ravager scratched the back of his neck for the umpteenth time in the last ten minutes. An uneasy feeling was crawling into him, as if they were being watched.

Maybe the debilitating dry heat was getting to him, but his gut kept screaming at him that something wasn't right, and he always listened to his gut. With a resigned sigh, he activated his mask, thinking of using the sensors to detect anything his half terran's eyes couldn't see, and yelped. Five weird and big creatures were creeping toward them, and two of them were getting dangerously close to Gamora.

"Gamora! Behind you!" he screamed, getting her attention.

She turned around, using the blowtorch as a weapon, but couldn't see anything. "Quill, now is not the time for your jokes," she said, turning the tool off. And the things were still crawling behind her, reaching for her legs.

Having no time to argue anymore, Peter jumped down, grabbed her by the waist and activated his jet-boots to reach the highest part of the wing, not listening to the outraged protests of his friend. He hauled her up onto it and screamed into his comm. "Rocket! Close the exits immediately, we've got company!"

"Peter, what is going on?!" Gamora shouted behind him.

"These things, I only can see them with my mask on! Just… trust me, please?" he said, shielding her and hurrying them both toward the cockpit. The creatures had reached the end of the wing now, and were closing in on them. Peter reached for his pocket only to realize he had left his coat inside the ship, and with it the remote control for the cockpit's side door. "Rocket! Drax! Open the door, now!"

The glass door lifted open and he pushed Gamora inside. That's when he felt it, a slimy thing grabbing his ankle and yanking him out. He landed on his belly with a grunt, latching onto the frame with all the strength he could muster. Kicking his legs in a desperate attempt at freeing himself, he felt Drax's strong hands grabbing his and pulling him in, but the creature's grip was equally strong. He let out a cry as he felt every joint in his body pop in protest.

"Guys! Just shoot the damn thing!"

"How? We can't see it!" Rocket answered, puzzled.

"That never stopped you before! Just aim right next to my left foot!" His ankle was killing him. He contorted himself to get a better look and realized with disgust that the thing holding his leg was in fact the creature's tongue. Yuck.

Rocket started shooting with the biggest weapon he had, then after two missing shots he finally aimed right and the creature released its prey, which happened to fall head over feet and on top of Drax.

Gamora closed the door in a hurry, and helped Peter while Drax was getting up. After a few seconds of stunned silence, the questions flew in a whirlwind.

"What the flark just happened?"

"Are you hurt?"

"I am Groot!"

"Is this invisible enemy still here?"

Peter rolled his shoulders, trying to ease the discomfort of having nearly been quartered a few seconds before. "Uh, let me see. I don't freaking know, I don't know my leg feels kinda weird, sorry Groot I didn't get you this time and yes, they're still here!"

He stood up, stretching out. "Wow Drax, you rolled me out like pie crust dough. Pretty sure I'm taller now. Am I taller than before?"

"Really? We're being attacked by a pack of invisible thingies that only you dummy can see and you're focusing on your height?"

"Yeah, sorry." Peter rubbed his arms nervously. "I guess the sensors inside my mask allow me to see through their cloaking abilities or whatever…"

"Yeah, I think infrared or something like that."

"You think you can do something about the sensors of the ship so they could ping on those things? Could be useful."

Rocket nodded, his genius brain already at work, and started pushing some buttons here and there.

Gamora put a gentle hand on her friend's shoulder. With the mask on, she couldn't read his face, but his tense posture was a good indication of how worried he was. "These creatures, what do they look like?"

"Uh… The stuff nightmares are made of?" His head was tilted back and following something on top of the glass dome above them. She didn't know what was more unnerving, the fact that those things were invisible or the fact that they also weren't making any noise at all.

"They look like a monstrous cross-breeding between a hairless leopard and a giant grasshopper, with a chameleon's tongue. It's very, very ugly. And scary." Their front part was as a leopard's, with a massive, feline-like head but with compound faceted eyes, and muscular front legs with big clawed paws. The rest of their horrible body was insectoid. Their shoulders and back were covered by a hard exoskeleton, they had a long abdomen ending with a sting, and long hind legs made for jumping. They really were terrifying.

Gamora smiled a little. "I don't know what these species look like." She heard Peter chuckle through his mask, giving it a little metallic sound.

"Yeah, they're terran species."

"How much are they?"

From where he stood, he could see a 320 angle, more or less. "I don't know, around twenty. I can't see if there are more behind us." He took a deep breath and looked at her through his glowing red lenses. "I should make sure no surprise guest sneaked in through the docking bay."

They all looked at him sternly. "Do you think one of these invisible creatures is inside the ship, unbeknownst to us?" Drax asked, tightening his grip on his beloved knives.

"It's a possibility. Better chase them now than be eaten in our sleep". He picked up every weapon he could carry.

"You cannot think of doing this alone, Peter. It is foolish and reckless, even for you!" Gamora said, promptly grabbing his wrist.

"And exactly what do you suggest we do?" he answered, gently freeing his wrist but keeping his hand on top of hers, unconsciously rubbing it with his thumb in a soothing gesture. "None of you can go in there blind; it'll only make you a liability. Plus, there's a great probability that they didn't get in, so it's just a precaution. I'll be fine."

Gamora pinched her lips, visibly upset by the whole thing. She knew he was right, but it didn't mean she had to like it. "Fine," she said. "But I really wish we could help. I hate this."

He snorted. "I bet you do." Gamora was one of the bravest persons he ever met, and the other ones were in the room with them. He was so proud to be a part of this team, to call them friends, to fight with them, for them.

He started climbing down the ladder and noticed that Groot was following him. "Groot, buddy, I have to do this alone..."

Groot shrugged and looked directly at the creatures crawling on the windshield, pointing at them with his finger. "I am Groot."

Peter was glad he had his mask on, because he was pretty sure he was making his dumbest face right now. "You can see them? Why didn't you say it before!?"

Groot shrugged. They didn't ask and he couldn't help before, so he didn't see the point. But now that he could be useful, he wasn't about to let his friend face great peril alone.

Gamora released a breath she hadn't realized she was holding until then, and turned to ask Rocket, who was still working on the sensors. "You knew?"

Rocket shrugged. "Didn't really pay attention, too busy shooting at invisible fuckers. Groot's eyes don't see the same as us mammals do so yeah, it's possible. Might even gimme an idea for us after I've finished working with those flarkin' sensors."

Peter clapped his hands once. "Great, that's great. You keep working on this infrared thing while Groot and I go downstairs to flush out any bugger that might have sneaked in. Drax, close the hatch behind us and don't open it until I or Groot ask you to."

He jumped the last steps separating him from the common area and Groot stepped in behind him. He raised his head when he didn't hear the hatch closing. "What are you waiting for? The thing's not going to close itself."

Gamora's head appeared above them, concern written all over her features. "I really don't like it Peter. We should wait until Rocket finds a way for all of us to see those creatures."

Peter deactivated his mask and rubbed his eyes before looking at her with what he hopped was a solemn and serious face. "Rocket's a genius but he can't do much from the bridge. I'm sure he could build infrared goggles for you to wear but he'll need actual stuff to do so and he'll only be able to find it when we're sure the ship is clear from unwanted monsters."

Rocket's voice boomed out across the ship. "As painful as it is for me to say, Quill's right. I know exactly what I need to build something that could help us and some of it is under my bunk."

Peter gave Gamora an apologetic smile before putting his mask back on. "It's settled then. Close the hatch and wish us good luck."

"Yeah. Don't get yourself killed."

"Aw, Rocket. Didn't know you cared."

"Was speaking to Groot, not you Douche-Lord."

The former Ravager chuckled. "I guess it's up to you and me now, Groot." he said as he heard the hatch being locked, readying his blaster gun.

"I am Groot." the flora colossus said, his tone and body language telling something like " _we don't have much choice anyway_ ".

"I hear you, buddy."

He didn't understand Groot like Rocket was able to, but he got the basics. "Yes", "No", "I want to help you", "I need help", I'm scared", "I'm happy", "I like this music" and of course, the favorite one among the Guardians: "You're an imbecile."

At first glance, the main area of the living quarters seemed empty. They were progressing slowly, checking every nook in the room from the ground to the ceiling, when all the lights died at once, then flickered back dimmer.

"Rocket, that you?" Peter asked.

"Nope." Rocket's voice answered through the comm, garbled with static.

"Damn. Groot, you can see in the dark, right?"

"I am Groot." Affirmative tone. Thank God or whatever.

"Please be careful."

"Don't worry Gamora, careful is my middle name."

"I do not understand, isn't your middle name Jason?"

Peter laughed. "Drax buddy, it's just a―" his words died on his tongue as he spotted a creature lurking on the ceiling next to his bunk, observing him with its insectoid eyes. Not losing any time, he shot fiery bolts of energy at it with his quad blaster. The thing fell on the ground but immediately got back on its monstrous legs, as if the blow had only tickled it.

"Okay, so the lethal bolts on my blaster don't hurt them. Good to know..." Peter tried a laser gun with zero effect. "And the laser gun doesn't work either. Fantastic."

Next to him, Groot let out an outraged roar, extended his arms toward the beast, catching it easily and ripped its head off with little effort. The thing's legs twitched for a few seconds before the remnants of the body went still.

"Well, at least crude decapitation works. Groot, I don't say it very often but I love you buddy!"

The flora colossus answered with a proud and earnest smile. He was very fond of Peter, even if he didn't understand all of his antics. Yes, Quill acted like a jerk most of the time, but Groot could only see how deeply he cared and how selfless he was. Like he could see Gamora's fierce righteousness and need for redemption hiding behind her detached demeanor, Drax's gentle soul behind his abrupt warrior facade or Rocket's emotional scars buried under tons of sarcasm and anger. Most of all, and he knew it because he felt it too, they were all looking for a sense of belonging, yearning for something they could call family, and they found it with one another.

With the Guardians, he had found respect and care for him and Rocket. They also gave him music, and some peace of mind. Thus, when some weird looking beasts were threatening the well being of his new family, he had to kill them all and that was as simple as that.

Peter crouched before the creature's dead body and carefully touched it with a gloved hand. It had a spongy texture and smelled like rot. He deactivated his mask for a second to verify a hunch and let out an intrigued snort as he discovered that the beast was now visible to the naked eye and looked even more hideous than it appeared through the lenses.

He turned with a start when Groot made a distressed sound behind him and swore loudly. His friend had continued his investigations through the common area and was now surrounded by four new creatures which came from an open hatch giving to the lower compartments of the ship.

He raised his bullet gun and fired, but it didn't work either. "Damn, what are these things made of!?" At least, his shooting had drawn two of the beasts' attention to him, evening the odds for Groot who growled as the other two jumped at him.

Peter placed himself behind the central table, putting it between him and the two monsters crawling toward him. He was running out of ideas on how to kill them from a relatively safe distance beside using a hand grenade or Rocket's hadron enforcer, and those weapons were definitely a no since blowing the whole ship with him and the team still inside was a little counter-productive. Bracing himself, he drew the hand-carved dagger Drax had given him and jumped on the beast the closest to him, thrusting the blade into the tender part between its hideous head and its shell-covered shoulders. He sighed in relief as the thing fell down under him, then turned on his back to face the second one just in time to plunge the dagger into the clawed paw aiming for his throat.

The situation was more than uncomfortable. The creature was bigger than him and much more powerful, and he was struggling to pull the blade out of the moving paw while his other hand was pushing under the jaw of the beast to prevent it from biting his head off. His arms were shaking from exertion and he knew he couldn't hold on much longer. Behind him, he could hear Groot fight for his life. Gathering his strength with a long primal shout, he managed to pull the blade out with a jerk and thrust it right under the creature's jaw. The thing collapsed on top of him, knocking the air out of his lungs, pinning and almost crushing him under its heavy dead body.

He tilted his head back to see how his friend was doing and would have gasped if he had any air left in his chest. Groot had vines sprouting everywhere, trying his best to maintain the creatures at a safe distance but failing to do so. A pile of gruesome cadavers already lied at his feet but more kept coming and, by the look of it, some of the now dead beasts had managed to plant their fangs and claws into his bark, for his shoulder seemed badly damaged and he had no right arm anymore.

A sudden sense of immediate danger made Peter turn his head to his right, and come face to face with a creature whose mouth was already wide open, about to swallow his head. He thanked the Gods from every religion he knew that his only free limb was the arm still holding the dagger and stabbed the beast in the throat in a knee-jerk reaction.

He couldn't stay like this, stuck and helpless, a free meal ready for consumption. An idea came to him, a very stupid one, but like most of his stupid ideas it could work. He slid his hand under the cadaver on top of him, reaching for his leg and careful not to stab himself in the thigh, then pushed the button of his jet-boots. He popped out with a whoosh and smelling like gross barbecue, knocked down a beast or two on his way out, crashed haphazardly on a wall then fell on the ground in a stunned heap. He got back on his feet in a daze, stars dancing before his eyes, and plunged into the melee.


	3. 03- Guardians : 1, fugly creatures : 0

**I would like to thank DaisyTheKitten, someonethe3rd and the anonymous guest for their sweet and kind reviews, and everyone who favorited or followed the story, it means the world to me! I'm sending love to each and everyone of you :)**

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 **03 – Guardians : 1  
** **fugly creatures : 0**

Back on the bridge, Drax and Gamora were becoming restless. The sounds that were coming through the comm systems and from down under were upsetting; as there was no doubt that their friends were facing grave danger and were on the verge of losing their lives.

"We should go help them. We are both trained and accomplished warriors and I am certain that our skills combined can overcome our not being able to see those creatures." Drax said tersely, his eyes not leaving the hatch beneath them.

"I want to agree with you, I really do," Gamora answered, a slight catch in her voice betraying how worried she was. "But Peter is right. If we go in there blind, we will only distract him and Groot from the danger and get us all killed."

Drax huffed in frustration. "We cannot stay here and do nothing! How can we call ourselves decent warriors if we hide ourselves in cowardice while our friends fight for our lives only a few feet away from us?"

"This is not cowardice, Drax!" Gamora all but shouted at him. "I am as angry at the situation as you are. I hate that we can't do anything for now, I do!" She suppressed an urge to punch something and turned her back on him, trying to control her breathing and regain a semblance of calm.

She was angry, yes, but most of all she was beyond scared. Not about dying or having to fight creatures she couldn't see. No. She was terrified of loosing Groot and Peter. After nearly a year of living together and fighting side by side, they all had loosen up a bit, allowed themselves to care and being taken care of. Drax's overwhelming thirst for vengeance had decreased and he had naturally taken a fatherly role in the team, showing astonishing cooking skills and unexpected wisdom. Rocket had started to open up a little about his past, as his nightmares had receded from an almost daily recurrence to an occasional one. She liked to sit in her corner of the ship and watch him build intricate machines, mostly bombs, in companionable silence. Also, him and Peter bantering about almost everything was as funny and entertaining as it was annoying. And she finally had reached some level of acceptance about her past, finding balance in doing (mostly) good for once, saving lives and helping people all across the Galaxy.

Groot and Peter were different from the other three. If her, Drax and Rocket were slowly getting used to not being alone anymore and seeing their poor social skills improve in consequence, it was mainly because of Groot' sweet innocence and Peter's infectious joie de vivre. They were the glue holding all of them together.

When Groot was still in his pot, slowly growing up, they all took care of him like they would have of a child. Rocket turned into a mamma bear, to use Peter's odd turn of phrase. But they bonded over it, and Groot became the team's offspring even if he was now taller than them and much more murderous when needed.

And no matter what happened to the team, how hurt or down they were, Peter always found a way to lighten the mood with a joke, his beloved music or an inspirational speech. He had reminded her how to laugh, taught her dancing and singing. When they were alone on the bridge, looking at the stars above them, he would tell her about his mom or about his time with the Ravagers, good or bad. Sometimes, when he felt she was in a sharing mood, he would ask about her life before Thanos and she would always answer. It had taken her by surprise the first time, but it felt good to remember her family, tell stories about them and allow them to live in the memories she had suppressed for so long. He never asked about what happened to her after That Day. He just knew to wait for her to open up and she did, little by little and only to him. She never really gave thought to what their relationship was or what he really meant to her, but she needed him in her life nonetheless.

She was interrupted in her train of thoughts by Rocket' sudden cry of victory. He emerged from under the control panel with a triumphant attitude, whiskers twitching and eyes sparkling. He jumped on the panel, pushed a button and all the lights in the room went out. One of the screens flickered and illuminated all the glass windows above them with an eerie dark light. They all looked up as one.

"Well, shit." Gamora usually didn't swear, but what she was seeing warranted a little profanity. The outside world had turned all shades of black and gray thanks to whatever Rocket had done, and the creatures were now visible through the windshield, all bright white contrasting against the black sky. They were everywhere as far as she could see, swarming on the fuselage like vermin on garbage.

"Quill's right, they're flarkin' ugly," Rocket mused. "Never seen anything like this. Don't wanna see anything like this again, so let's fry 'em all?" He looked at both his teammates, his eyes gleaming with murderous intelligence.

"I sure wouldn't mind not having to look at those atrocious creatures anymore, and you seem to know what you are doing, my friend." Drax said.

The raccoon smiled and hit several buttons at the same time. "No freakin' idea, big guy." He pushed one last switch and jumped off of the console, enjoining his friends to step backwards a little. The engines rumbled, made a high pitch sound then a powerful wave of electrical energy spread on the ship's fuselage as the disruptor shield deployed itself with some Rocket-made modifications. The three guardians watched in awe the creatures getting hit simultaneously by a flash of almost blinding white light and drop like flies.

Deciding the things looked dead enough for his taste, Rocket reactivated his communicator to pass information to Peter. "Hey, Quill! Use the non lethal electricity streaks of your blaster against the thingies, it should work!"

The former Ravager was currently back to back with Groot, surrounded by about fifteen hungry looking creatures. At least twice more were lying dead or dying at their feet. It was like the more they killed those things, the more they kept coming, and he didn't understand how it was possible.

"What!? Blaster doesn't work on kill mode, why would it on stun mode?" He shouted, slashing his dagger at another jumping beast. He had discovered that their lower abdomen was also vulnerable and much easier to catch, but wounding them here didn't kill them. Still, it slowed them down enough.

"I don't have time to explain laws of physics to you, you dimwit! Just do it!"

Peter huffed and reached for his blaster with his left hand. He lowered his eyes a few seconds to find it as it wasn't in its usual place and two creatures took advantage of his momentary distraction to pounce on him, sending him into Groot and making them loose balance. They landed in a tangled mass of limbs and vines and the monsters didn't miss a beat, charging all at once, all fangs and claws out. Groot shielded both of them the best he could, creating an intricate structure of wood around them, while Peter started firing his blaster to dislodge a creature gnawing on his leg.

He let out an odd noise, between a giggle and a maniacal laugh, when he realized the lightening shot had actually worked and fired eagerly at every creature coming into his line of sight. Soon, he and Groot were able to get on their feet again and slowly made their way through the never-ending flow of monsters, shooting at them and dismembering them, until they finally reached the airtight door leading to the lower levels and the docking bay. Peter kept firing, covering them and giving Groot some leeway to grab the door, shut it and make sure it was firmly locked.

Still high on adrenalin, Peter turned back and shot at every corpse lying on the ground, even if its head was a few feet away from the rest of its body; just to make sure they were really, really dead. Then he leant against the nearest wall he could find and let himself slide down, legs sprawled out and arms dangling on his sides, trying hard to catch his breath.

Groot wandered in the room for a short moment, looking like a lost soul, then bent over and picked up his torn out right arm from under one of the cadavers. He made a pained, sad sound and sat down in front of his friend, cradling his limb against his grazed chest. They looked at each other, dazed and confused, and Peter finally found the strength to reach for his comm. He also deactivated his mask as it was starting to make him feel claustrophobic.

"Hey team," he said, still a little out of breath. "I think that part of the ship is clean, so to speak… If you want to come down and help search for whatever Rocket needs to make those damn goggles."

Up in the cockpit, the three other guardians sighed in relief. Not wasting any more time, Gamora jumped down the hatch just as Drax had finished open it and did a double take at the scene displaying before her eyes.

"Yeah, they become visible when they're dead, don't ask me why." Peter's tired voice came from her left, as if he was reading her mind.

She approached him cautiously, stepping over an amazing amount of dead bodies, her eyes roaming over his disheveled appearance looking for any obvious injury. She crouched by his side hesitantly, not knowing where to touch him. "Are you hurt?"

He smiled lazily at her, then looked down on himself and shrugged. He was covered in gore from head to toe and the rotting smell was overwhelming, but other than a few scrapes and ruined clothes, he was miraculously unharmed. "These were my favorite pants..."

Gamora snorted. If he could complain about his pants, then he was sound enough. "All your pants look the same."

Peter gave her a short laugh. "Yeah, but still. They resisted these jaws," he said, pointing at the nearest dead creature. He got back on his feet with a little help, took a deep breath and gagged at the stink coming from him. "I think I'll have to burn my clothes."

"We'll have to burn the whole ship to get rid of that smell!" exclaimed Rocket as his sensitive nose got assaulted by the stench of decay coming from the creatures. "Ugh, I think I'm gonna barf."

"Please restrain yourself from doing so; we do not need the smell of your vomit in addition to that of putrefaction." Drax added solemnly. He took an appreciative look at the pile of dead bodies covering the ground. "You both fought bravely. I am proud to call you my friends."

Rocket was taking care of Groot, who was still mourning his lost arm even if it was already growing back. "How are you unscathed when Groot's missing bark and a limb?" He said, a bit more harshly than necessary. It was hard for him to be sympathetic to others when it came to Groot.

Understandably, Peter took a little offense. "Hey! I fought as much as him. They just attacked him more, maybe because they've never seen a living tree before, or because he killed the first one, I don't know. Plus, I remind you that my limbs don't grow back; I have to be a little more cautious with them than him."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." The raccoon closed the discussion, knowing that Peter was right and being dangerously close to having to make excuses. He loved his friends, and even if he didn't show it by being all mushy and talkative about his feelings, they knew. He'd die for them, and that was pretty much saying everything, since before them he only would have given his shitty life for Groot.

Truth was, Quill had grown on him very quickly, faster that he would have thought possible for a (half) human. The guy was the only being in the universe to match his salty and quirky sense of humor and that was refreshing, stimulating even, especially when they engaged in prank wars. He had to surrender more than he would like to admit, as the terran was relentless. He also bonded with Gamora over the whole having been tortured viciously with body modifications thing, and Drax was actually not dumb at all, just intense in everything he did or believed in. Plus, the big guy made the most delicious gnuur stew he ever had the pleasure to eat.

"Okay," Peter changed subjects, knowing when to bury the hatchet. "So, what do you need for the, you know, specs-making thing?"

"Oh, I won't have to build goggles. Bring me our spacesuits, I'll find the rest myself."


	4. 04 - Chitchatting and campfire stories

**A very special thanks to imaginationrunsfree and czabboxoxo for their reviews, you can't know how much it means to me.**

 **Here's the new chapter! Not much action in this one, but our favorite bunch of a-holes deserved a break.**

 **04 - Chitchatting and campfire stories**

A few minutes later, Rocket was still working on the spacesuits, more precisely on the helmets. The rest of the team had almost finished cleaning the area, slowly evacuating the cadavers through the side door of the cockpit, after Peter had made sure that no more creatures were near the ship. The task was arduous as the dead beasts were heavy and slimy as hell, but it helped keep their mind off the fact that more monsters were waiting for them on the lower parts of the ship, ones that were very much alive.

They were working like a well oiled machine. Gamora dragged the bodies closer to the ladder, Groot hauled them up to the bridge and handed them to Drax who threw them out, then Peter pushed them down on the ground while remaining vigilant and looking out for any more danger coming from the outside.

After what seemed like an hour, Quill finally kicked the last cadaver off the wing of the ship, watching it drop on top the other ones. He made a quick scan of the place, seeing no threat coming but noticed that the sky above him was a little bit darker as the sun had almost disappeared behind the horizon and the temperature was cooler than it was when they made their sensational arrival on this damn planet.

He jumped back into the cockpit and slumped into his chair, exhausted. There wasn't a muscle in his body that didn't ache. Drax sat next to him, sporting the same frown on his face he had when he was trying to decipher Rocket's weirdest metaphors.

"You look worried, friend. Don't you believe in our capacities to defeat those deceitful invaders?"

Peter smiled gently at him. "I do believe in us. But, first the thing appeared out of nowhere and forced us to crash on it, and then we get attacked by invisible monsters… It makes me wonder what this planet has in store for us next, and where did it come from in the first place? We're basking in craziness."

The frown was back on Drax' face.

"It's just an expression, buddy." Peter yawned and rubbed his tired eyes.

"I think I know what this planet is," Gamora said from behind, startling him. As usual, he hadn't heard her coming. "And if I'm right, the sooner we leave the better." She sat on the metallic ground between her friends and facing them, her back resting awkwardly against the console. Her posture was tense, almost defensive, as she often did when she was about to reveal something from her past.

"What do you mean?" Peter asked softly.

"It's something I heard in my first years with Thanos. I was with Nebula and another of our brothers, a very new one… He was tough, but such a sweet boy. He died shortly after; I can't remember his name…" She shook her head to clear her mind. Now was not the time to get emotional. "We sneaked out of our dormitory and were on our way to the sparring quarters —we were constantly challenging ourselves as Thanos encouraged our competitive spirit; but we heard something in one of the labs that made us stop. Two scientists were arguing and one of them seemed to be afraid. What intrigued us was that this man was the worst being we knew, as he was the one that uh, worked on us. I remember he was saying that though Thanos was great, he couldn't match the Celestials' powers."

"The Celestials," Interrupted Peter, "As, somewhat space-gods eradicating worlds with an infinity stone, mining colony made out of one's severed head, Celestials?"

"Yes. They also were inquisitive scientists with limitless abilities, and often used entire worlds to experiment on. From what we could gather on the conversation we overheard, Thanos wanted to recreate one of their experimentation on a whole solar system, to see if he could displace it in time and space. What spooked our Doctor was that the Celestials' trial had gone badly: the displacement triggered a chain reaction into the sun which made it age too fast. The average star turned into a red giant that destroyed the planets which were the closest to it and burnt the others, as the radiations killed life on the planets or drastically changed the DNA of the ones that survived. Plus, the displacement had a glitch and the whole system got stuck in an unpredictable spatiotemporal loop. If that's what is really happening to us, we need to get out of here before the whole thing flashes back to another time and space and takes us with it. We'd be lost forever."

"And here I was, thinking this day couldn't get any worse," Peter sighed. "This reminds me of a story one of my marks told me when I got him drunk enough to uh, do what I was hired to do. He kept blabbering about the time he crashed on a planet that didn't show on any radar and how most of his crew got killed by ghosts, except that what he landed on was mostly sand and not rock like here. He said he was lucky enough to crash next to the wreckage of another ship and pillaged it for parts, but that's when a lot of his men died. If I remember correctly, he said that when he finally took off, he noticed the planet was covered with wrecks, as if his wasn't the first ship to crash here. After the job, the story kinda stayed with me and I talked about it to the other Ravagers. Of course, they made fun of me but after a while and a few drinks, they all had their own legends to talk about, similar to this one, about ships disappearing, ghost planets or sole survivors of weird crashes. I guess I never really believed it until now, but it makes sense…"

Peter scratched his head, getting his still gore-covered hair messier than it already was. The stuff had dried and was itching like crazy. "Problem is, even if we manage to get rid of all our invaders the Milano took too much damage to go to space, and though I have some spare parts in here, we're missing some pretty big and crucial components."

"What you both heard matches too much to be a coincidence," Drax said, thinking out loud, "even if Quill's stories were told in an advanced state of inebriation which means their content is probably exaggerated, it signifies that there is a solid chance there are some shipwrecks somewhere on this planet that we may scavenge for parts."

"True." Gamora nodded then looked up at Peter. "The Milano cannot go into space for now, but do you think you and Rocket can get it repaired enough to fly over the surface of the planet and scan for the wreckage of other ships?"

"I think so," Peter said, shrugging. "With a good weld it could work."

"Hey, up there," Rocket's voice boomed into the comms, "when you've finished chitchatting and bonding over campfire stories, maybe you can come here and try on the suits?"

Peter chuckled. "Coffee break's over."


	5. 05-Mother of all the thingies

**05 - Mother of all the thingies**

Gamora volunteered to try one of the modified spacesuits. Rocket had enhanced it with a crude HUD like system, making it a little heavier and harder to move into than before, but she would manage. She positioned herself next to the airtight door, Peter and Groot by her sides and ready to shoot whatever might try to come in, while Drax slowly unlocked the handle. The door peered open just enough for her to see if the HUD worked and boy, it did work. The small corridor was swarming with creatures, but she didn't have time to register it for all she could care about was the slimy tongue jumping at her and grabbing her by the waist, pulling her in so fast she didn't have time to react. Thankfully, she immediately felt Groot's one strong arm circling her and wresting her from the claws of the beast, while Peter shot at it furiously. She nimbly cut the tongue still holding her with her sword, and Drax closed the door in a hurry.

"Wow," she said, catching her breath as Groot gently put her down on her feet. "They're fast."

"Yeah, don't tell me about it." Peter eyed her worryingly. "You alright?"

"Yes, thank you." She smiled at him reassuringly and straightened her pose with her hands on her hips, then removed them almost immediately, disgusted by the sticky remains of saliva staining her clothes.

In front of her, Peter chuckled in amused fondness. Gamora was always so tidy and well put-together while he was the mess personified, and yet they made it work.

"When you two have finished making eyes at each other, we're ready to go end some monsters, just so you know." Rocket snarled behind her, adjusting his spacesuit while Drax was already all suited up and by the door, looking at them nonchalantly.

The raccoon handed her a small taser gun. "I know you prefer to eviscerate your enemies but, just in case…"

She took the gun solemnly and put it by her belt. "Thank you, Rocket."

Peter noticed his friend was carrying his favorite huge ion cannon. "You know it doesn't work on them, don't you?"

Rocket snorted and answered with a diabolical smirk, "Now it does. Ready to go?"

"I was born ready." Peter checked one last time that both his blaster guns were charged and placed himself in front of the airtight door.

"Do you mean there was a prophecy about you fighting those creatures?" Drax mused next to him.

"Ha! No buddy, it's just an expression. But it will be legendary anyway." He winked at his friends then activated his mask. "Let's go!"

Peter and Rocket started shooting at the creatures the second Drax opened the door. The small corridor leading to the docking bay and the engines compartment was packed with an unbelievable number of crawling beasts. "I don't understand," Peter shouted over the non-stop firing roar. "There shouldn't be so much of them!"

"What do you mean," Rocket answered equally loud, while climbing over a pile of dead bodies, "You've never seen those things before!"

"I know but," the former Ravager dodged a claw aiming for his carotid and fired. "Think about it; when I first saw them outside, there were no more than twenty, maybe thirty of them! And when Groot and I were first attacked here, they were two at first and more kept coming..." he jumped over a decapitated corpse, shooting at as much creatures as he could with both his guns. "but not as much as this! It's not logical!"

"They're invisible! A whole flarking solar system jumped on us! It's forget logic day!" Rocket roared, jumping over two maimed beasts and firing at two more. "Bam, murdered you!"

"I do not think it would be wise to forget logic for a whole day," said Drax, grinning like a maniac. He was a few feet ahead of them and slashing his way through, enjoying the action.

"Stop talking and keep fighting!" Gamora grunted on Peter's left, slaying with her sword everything that dared coming for her.

"I am Groot!" Agreed the Flora Colossus, skewering a few creatures with one extended arm and using them to bash at the others. His other arm had already started growing back, but wasn't useful for now. They all were progressing slowly but surely, and after ten minutes or more, they finally reached the engines room.

"Well, I'll be damned." Peter said, astonishment seeping through his voice. Gamora's sword swaying a few inches from his face to slay a beast jumping at him got him back on track a millisecond later.

"You wanted to know why there was so much of them thingies. Now you do, Shit-Lord." Rocket said from his vantage point standing on Groot's shoulder and showering the creatures with electricity blasts, but his own amazement was tangible.

The place was covered with creatures from the ground to the ceiling, but the main event was the hideous, gigantic sort of queen which had attached itself to the core reactor, sucking its energy and somewhat using it to duplicate itself on a smaller scale. The sight was gross and the way they popped out of the queen reminded Peter of that Gremlins movie he saw with his granddad a few months before The-Day-That-Drastically-Changed-His-Life happened.

"We need to kill that thing and fast!" Gamora exclaimed to his right.

"I agree!" Rocket answered, jumping from Groot's shoulder to the nearest pile of dead bodies and getting on with aiming most of his shots at the queen, while Drax and Gamora had naturally taken the task of slicing and dismembering the creatures coming at them.

He noticed that Peter had once again zoned out. "Hey Quill! No time to daydream, snap out of it and help me to kill the damn thing!"

Startled, Peter shook himself and resumed shooting at the humongous beast which let out a deafening shriek. That was the first sound they ever heard one of those things make, and he didn't want to hear it again. Also, he couldn't pinpoint it yet, but something didn't feel right and it kept distracting him.

He diverted his attention from the queen to kill a creature which had jumped from the ceiling to get behind Drax and that's when he realized what was bugging him. Groot had separated himself from the team and was standing motionless a few feet between them and the core reactor, a transfixed look on his wooden face. The creatures were running past him as if he was no longer a threat to them.

Quill tried calling out to him without success, except for catching the rest of the team's attention.

"Groot, what's wrong buddy?" Rocket asked, trying to get another clean shot at the queen but failing as the beasts kept getting in the way, sacrificing themselves with no hesitation.

"I don't like this," Peter mused, "they don't attack him anymore. Not that I want him to be attacked in the first place but, that's weird." He gunned a creature down and shot at the queen at least four times before actually managing to hit it on the side. The giant creature shrieked again but remained attached to the core reactor, seeming mostly unfazed.

The awful scream had some effect on Groot, who slowly turned toward Peter but looked right through him, as if he wasn't even there. It was unsettling to say the least, and the former Ravager couldn't help the shiver that crept up his spine. "Groot, are you okay?"

Groot stared at him, eyes strangely empty. "I am Groot." The deep voice was detached, cold even; and he didn't understand the true meaning behind the three words.

"What?!" exclaimed Rocket, taken aback so much that he forgot where he was and if it wasn't for Gamora's awesome skills, he would have been swallowed whole. "Have you lost your flarking mind?"

"What's he saying?" Peter ducked a flying decapitated head and continued shooting at the never-ending flow of enraged creatures.

"Stupid here got it into his stupid head that he needs to protect the stupid queen! Must be some kind of stupid mind control. Flark that stupid shit!" The raccoon used a small window of opportunity to shoot at the queen. His enhanced eyes noticed that he did have wounded it, but the gash on its abdomen closed shortly after, sparks of energy flying all over the wound. "Ah, dang it! The thing is using the core reactor's energy to regenerate itself! We'll never shoot fast enough to kill it at this rate!"

"I AM GROOT!" His best friend's voice boomed right behind him and there was nothing he could do to avoid the massive wooden hand from hitting him and sending him flying all over the room and back into the narrow corridor they had come from. Thankfully or not, his landing was cushioned by the mattress of cadavers covering the ground and he got up a second later, shaking his head in confusion.

"Rocket! You alright bud?" Peter asked worryingly.

"Yeah, yeah. Back in a jiffy, those uglies are a pain to walk on, slippery with nasty claws and all." He started climbing his way back when Quill stopped him.

"Don't!"

"What?! Stupid shit got to you too?" He eyed his friend suspiciously, searching for signs of brainwashing.

"No, Ranger Rick. You need to go back to the bridge and shut down the power; If the queen can't feed on it, we might have a chance to kill it!"

"Ooh. Right." He made a U-turn and started run-climbing as fast as he could. "Won't take long, stay safe. And don't harm Groot!"

"Pinkie promise!" He heard Peter shout back and a second later he pretty sure heard Drax ask how a promise could be colored pink.

He soon reached the corridor's exit and got back into the common area. Behind him, he could still hear the sounds of his friends' fight muffled with the distance, grunts, blaster shots, shouts and the occasional shriek from the queen, followed by a furious "I am Groot". He climbed the ladder to the cockpit with a heavy heart. He wasn't fast enough, and his friends needed him. Sure, they were the best team in the Galaxy (not to brag), but facing an army of invisible and silent deadly monsters was one thing and if you added Groot in full mamma-bear mode to the equation you obtained a recipe for disaster. What if his best friend killed one of the team in his brainwashed state? Poor sweet soul wouldn't be able to live with the guilt. And what if they killed him and he couldn't grow back this time? No matter how much he loved them, he'd never forgive them.

He shook himself out of his dark thoughts and jumped on the console, searching for the switch of the core reactor. You'd think the damn thing would have been easy to find in case of emergency, but since his life was a succession of mostly shitty moments, why would it, right? Right.

Downstairs, he could hear the battle intensifying and the unmistakable sound of somebody getting hurt. The voice sounded male, so it was Peter or Drax. He started pulling his hair in frustration. Damn! He was a flarking genius, wasn't he? So, why wasn't he able to complete the simple task of finding a stupid switch? Or maybe there wasn't any switch to find. He groaned, angry at himself. It was so stupid, he had lost precious time panicking and self loathing when he could have been useful... Of course there wasn't a switch, nor a button! It was a flarking ship with a flarking main computer, he just had to enter a specific command and that's all there was to it!

Rocket typed the command as fast as he could and pressed enter with rage. A few moments later, the lights went out and the constant buzz of the machines died, the only sounds resonating in the ship being the ones of the team struggling against the creatures and Groot.

Not losing any second, he jumped down the ladder and ran back to his friends so fast he could swear he walked on the walls. When he finally reached them, it was to find Peter and Gamora shielding an unconscious Drax, whose bone was grossly sticking out of his left arm, spacesuit ruined and dripping with blood. They had taken shelter on a corner of the room and were fighting in synch, Gamora taking care of the beasts circling them while Peter fired stunning jolts of electricity at Groot to keep him occupied and at a safe enough distance.

Assessing the situation and calculating the odds in a millisecond, Rocket climbed onto the highest place he could find and fired unrelentingly at the queen. Since the reactor had stopped supplying it with energy, the thing had stopped duplicating but was still charged enough to regenerate. He kept on firing, and soon the gigantic beast couldn't heal itself anymore. Sensing their queen was in danger, some of the creatures diverted their attention from the trio and charged at him. He chose not to shoot at them and stayed on the queen which showed signs of weakening.

To buy his friend some needed time to kill the queen, Peter stopped firing at Groot and shot the beasts down as soon as they passed within range. A few seconds later, he purposefully ignored Gamora's desperate cries for attention and felt wooden vines grabbing him and lifting him off the ground, winding around his body and slowly squeezing the air out of his lungs. He carried on firing, trying to ignore the dark spots dancing before his eyes, and concentrated on his only purpose: to protect Rocket at all costs.

Gamora had to think fast. She couldn't leave Drax' side as he was still unconscious and was most likely to be devoured if left alone for one second, and she also couldn't let Groot squeeze Peter to death. She grabbed Rocket's taser gun from her belt with her left hand and aimed at the Flora Colossus, trying not to hit Quill in the process, while she continued maiming the creatures threatening Drax and her with her sword. And that, ladies and gentlemen, was one of the many reasons why she had earned the title of Deadliest Woman in the Galaxy.

The taser blasts had Groot loosening his grip on Peter a little and the former Ravager gulped the air greedily, his oxygen deprived lungs expanding painfully against his abused ribcage. At the same time, Rocket's relentless assaults against the queen had finally bear fruit as the giant creature slowly slid from the reactor and fell on the ground, twitching and wailing miserably. The raccoon whooped devilishly, fired one last blast and the thing definitively stopped moving, her mind control over Groot disappearing in an instant.

The Flora Colossus emerged from the nightmarish haze he had been forced into with a horrified gasp, and released his friend like if he was made of fire. Peter got caught up by surprise and fell on the back of a live beast, his blaster slipping from his hand with the abrupt landing. He rode the creature awkwardly for a brief moment before both realized what was happening and fought to be the first to kill the other. The beast kicked and reared, trying to dislodge and bite the interloper who was hanging onto the edge of the hard shell above its neck with one hand and reaching for his blade with the second. After a few missed attempts due to the uncomfortable bouncing between his legs, Quill managed to thrust his blade in the nape of the creature's neck, putting an end to the weirdest rodeo of his life. He then jumped on his side to dodge a beast pouncing on him, made a side roll, grabbed his discarded blaster and leant his back against Groot's leg to shoot at every creature he could.

Above him, Groot had resumed dismembering all the beasts passing within his reach and heaved a sigh of relief when he realized Peter still trusted him. The wooden giant was angry at himself for not having been able to prevent the queen from forcing its will on his mind. He had felt trapped in his own body, watching himself break Drax's bones and suffocate Peter while his mind was flooded with the urge to protect the queen. He had never felt so helpless since he had witnessed his entire species being wiped out in a giant beam of fire, and the memory still haunted him to this day.

But now that he had regained control, he channelled his anger toward the creatures and did his utmost to kill each and everyone of them with Rocket and Peter's help, while Gamora stayed behind to protect Drax.

About thirty exhausting minutes later, they had finished clearing the ship of the creatures and had regrouped in the common area to take care of Drax, whom had regained consciousness and was currently sitting on his bunk, striped from his damaged spacesuit and holding his awkwardly limp arm on his lap. Gamora was about to reset his compound fracture when Groot timidly handed him a delicate purple flower. His fuzzy, concussed brain couldn't process his friend's odd behavior and he stared at the flower with uncomprehending eyes.

Groot delicately nudged the flower next to Drax's mouth, and made an eating sign with his other hand.

"I think he wants you to eat this." Gamora said as she was applying disinfectant to her friend's wound. "Does it have healing properties?" she asked, noticing the Flora Colossus sorry and eager to help look.

Groot smiled and nodded. "I am Groot."

Drax took the gift with gratitude and let the flower lie on his tongue, savoring its sweet taste and already feeling the numbing effect on his throbbing arm. He smiled contentedly.

Groot bowed his head down and murmured a quiet "I am Groot". This one was easy to interpret.

"You don't have to be sorry, my friend. You were not in control of your actions." Drax gently took his friend's hand and made him sit next to him, both taking comfort in each other's presence while Gamora sharply put the sticking out bone back to its rightful place.

On the other side of the room, Peter noted that Rocket was sitting alone and seemed to be brooding. He came closer and sat carefully by his side, not wanting to upset him more. "Hey buddy, what's wrong?"

"S'all my fault." The answer came so quiet he almost missed it.

"What do you mean, all your fault?" he asked, genuinely intrigued.

Rocket shifted nervously, torn up between his hatred of deep conversations and the need to vent the angst. He sighed and chose the latter. "Drax getting hurt. I lost too much time looking for a non existing switch, I panicked and I just couldn't concentrate. Stupid, stupid, stupid!"

It was so out of character that Peter looked at him with goggled eyes. "Whoa, are you serious?" His friend couldn't even look him straight in the eyes, too busy with his self-shaming. "Rocket, you can't possibly think that. You killed the queen of the thingies, you saved us! And if you really want to blame someone for the mess we are in, then blame me. If I hadn't delayed our leaving Guna for an hour because I wanted to show you all that awesome bar but didn't remember where it was, we wouldn't have been on the path of this crappy planet. Plus, the bar wasn't that awesome anymore so, you know, it was all for nothing."

Rockey snorted. "Yeah, the bar was really lame."

Peter smiled, then sighed. "Come on, break's over. I need you to help me find a way to get the ship to fly long enough to find a wreckage with parts we can use. And we also need to get rid of the pile of cadavers polluting the Milano's lower levels real quick. There's no way we're gonna take that stench with us when we take off!"

"Oh, you're not coming with us then?" the raccoon teased him, eyes gleaming once again with mischievous wit.

"Ha. Ha. Ha. Speak for yourself, furball. I think you missed a spot when you decided to roll on smelly dead gunk. Shower time's gonna be epic." He sighed. He was craving for a shower and a 24 hours power nap.

Rocket groaned. "Don't remind me. Stuff's sticky as hell." He stood up and readjusted his overalls. "Come on Dirt-Lord, we've got some repairs and cleaning to do."


	6. 06-How to fly a washing machine

**06-How to fly a washing machine**

The first thing Rocket did after turning the power back on was to push the modified shields of the Milano to a maximum, creating sort of a bubble of electrical energy surrounding them. It allowed him, Peter and Gamora to work on the repairs without worrying about new creatures boarding the ship unnoticed, while Groot took the arduous task of cleaning the ship out of an unbelievable amount of smelly and slippery cadavers.

At least two hours had passed and the gigantic sun had still not completely disappeared behind the horizon, its intense heat still feeling like a hammer blow. The light had changed spectrum, from a blinding yellowish white to red purplish.

Peter wiped the beads of sweat on his forehead with his wrist and stepped back to check the work progress. He had just finished his part and his friends were almost done. The Milano still looked bad but at least the breaches were closed. He ran his hand against the scrapped surface as if to ask the ship for forgiveness and went back inside.

The putrid smell was still awfully strong and he took a moment to get used to it again, taking small breaths and trying hard not to gag. Groot passed by him, carrying the last corpses and throwing them out as far as the shield allowed to. He then stepped back into the cargo bay and stayed here, looking as if he was concentrating on something.

"What are you doing, buddy?" Peter asked, genuinely curious.

Groot looked at him and smiled, then raised his arms slowly. Hundreds of tiny petals and spores escaped from his body, not unlike that time in Ronan's ship except they weren't luminescent, and flew freely inside the room like a sweet tornado of delicate flowery smell.

Peter chuckled in awe. The whole thing was so odd. And it reminded him of those adds for detergent he saw on TV when he was a kid, the ones where women were cleaning their house while dancing and singing and it made everything shine and magical flowers appeared out of nowhere. His mom hated those adds and he understood why the first time Yondu made him clean the bathrooms of the Eclector. There was nothing magical nor glamorous about cleaning bathrooms, and he also discovered that them being called "The Ravagers" was oh so very fitting.

He followed Groot and his flowery breeze throughout the ship and stopped next to Drax' bunk to find him sound asleep. Peter checked his friend's vitals and readjusted the blanket covering his massive body in a caring gesture.

"How is he doing?" Gamora's hushed voice behind him almost made him jump. Almost.

"He's gonna be fuzzy and sore, but the readings are good and the fracture's already healing. At this rate, he'll be all good in three or four days. I'm jealous." Peter smiled. The last time he broke a bone, it was in his leg and it took weeks to heal. And it sucked big time. "Are we ready to go?"

"Yes. Rocket is making a final check as we speak."

"Okay, good. How long do you think we have until the next spatiotemporal jump thing?"

Gamora sighed. "It could happen in two days or in two seconds for all I know. And we don't even know if it really is the same solar system I have heard about."

"Given our legendary luck, it has to be. And it's the only thing making sense anyway. Just cross your fingers that we have enough time to find the parts we need to repair the ship and leave this nightmare." He said, leaving Drax' bunk.

"Why would I cross my fingers? It's not practical." Gamora said, following him to the bridge.

Peter laughed. He sometimes forgot that she also could take his expressions literally. "No, it's just a make a wish thing terrans do. It's supposed to keep the bad luck away. See?" He showed her the sign, smiling broadly.

Gamora smiled teasingly. "Terrans are so weird. And I didn't know you were superstitious."

"I'm not. But it's also kinda comforting you know? Just in case. Come on, cross your fingers with me." He winked and climbed the ladder to the bridge.

She rolled her eyes. "You're such a kid."

"Ah, you're no fun." He noticed Rocket fiddling with the cables under the main console. "Hey buddy, are we ready to go?"

The raccoon peeked out for a second then resumed his job. "Just a sec… if I plug this one here..."

" _ **You're screwed! You're screwed! You're screw-**_ "

"ROCKET!"

"Yeah, yeah, sorry." The alarm stopped screaming and Rocket came out from under the console, wiping grease off his hands with an even greasier rag. "There. Everything's back to where it belongs, we're as ready as we'll ever be, Star-dork."

"Good. Let's find us a top winglet and get the hell out of Dodge."

"Did you find the name of this place?" A groggy voice came from below.

Peter looked down the ladder to find Drax staring at him with a confused expression. "Hey Drax! Glad to see you awake. How do you feel regarding uh, your health status?"

"I've had worse, but thank you for your concern, Peter Quill. Did I miss anything during my rest?"

"Just some cleaning and repairs. How's your arm?"

Drax shrugged. "It is healing slower that I am used to. I find this situation to be very frustrating."

"Maybe it has something to do with this planet, like, it's affecting us on some level..." Peter mused.

"What do you mean?" asked Rocket. "It's not like the damn thing broke his arm on purpose."

Peter sighed. "If you think about it, we've all been a little different since we crashed here. Drax' injuries are far worse than they should be. I mean, the last time I saw him break a bone it was a rib and only after he had fought Ronan twice, was hit by a ship then crashed on Xandar! We fought bad guys far worse than those creatures and he got out without a scratch, it's not normal. And you, Gamora. You're the most aware person I've ever met. I've seen you kill some ninja soldiers before I even knew they were a threat, and you couldn't sense the creatures' presence even when they were so close they almost grabbed you. Rocket is kinda slower and emotional -not a reproach, just an observation; and we've all seen what those creatures can do to Groot's mind."

"And what about you?" Gamora inquired.

"I don't know, it's more like a feeling, you know? Like my instincts are sharper. Look, I don't mind it, but I know I'm the weakest of us all. I'm no genius, I don't have body mods, warrior-like training nor regenerative abilities..."

"We all get weaker and you get better," Rocket interrupted him. "Why?"

"Maybe it's my ancient alien genes or the fact that I'm not even from this Galaxy to begin with? Or maybe with all the pollution and chemicals I've been exposed to when I was a child on Terra I've developed some kind of immunity..."

"All the what?" Rocket asked. Peter always described his home-world like this magical heaven with awesome kick-ass heroes and beautiful landscapes. Chemical pollution didn't fit in the idyllic painting he had made up in his mind.

Peter chuckled. "Yeah. Apparently all the stuff we use for agriculture on Terra is classified as strictly forbidden chemical weapons in this Galaxy. When Yondu abducted me, the first thing he did was to put me in decontamination for a whole day because I was making all the sensor of the Eclector go nuts. Only after I was considered clean enough, some of the Ravagers tried to eat me but I escaped and took refuge into the air ducts. It took them hours to find me and another hour to bribe me into getting out with some food because they were all too big to reach me. Then Yondu put me into decontamination again just for show."

They all stayed silent for a short moment, then Rocket cracked into a laugh that got contagious fast. "Sorry, sorry. I know we should all commiserate on the two rounds of decontamination, I mean that's rough. But dude, using chemical weapons for agriculture? How are you all terrans still alive!?"

Quill smiled. "Well, it seemed to be all good when I left. We're a very resilient species."

"Sounds about right," Rocket agreed. "Come on, we're wasting precious time."

Peter nodded. "Yeah. Drax, we're about to take off and search for shipwrecks, so I'd like you and Groot to return to your bunks and buckle up, the flight will probably be a little shaky and I don't want your injuries to worsen. Okay?"

Drax smiled gently and nodded. "You do not need to worry as I can care for myself, my friend."

Peter smiled in return. "I know buddy, and thank you for indulging me." He watched Drax disappear from his point of view and turned to Rocket, who had settled into the co-pilot's seat. Gamora was also sitting in her chair, harness belt fastened and smiling at him.

He sat down and slowly started the engines. The Milano hummed as it came back to life and gently left the ground. Then a few red lights switched on and a beeping sound invaded the cockpit.

"Uh-oh."

"Rocket, please tell me this is one of your practical jokes and not what I think it is."

Rocket shrugged. "Not a joke, sorry."

"Ah, damn it. Freaking awesome." Quill let out a frustrated huff.

"What's happening?" Gamora inquired worryingly.

"Seems like we're almost out of power. Queen of the Thingies must have depleted the batteries when she tapped into the core reactor. And my boosted shield didn't help." Rocket informed her.

"And now we have to find a functioning top winglet AND a charged battery," added Peter. "Okay. I'm deactivating everything except the low thrusters. We'll fly as low as possible and I'll need you both to look out for anything that could help us out of this mess. Rocket, I hope you have something portable that we could use to scan the area? And while you're at it, please check the central core unit."

"Already on it." The raccoon said, jumping out of his seat.

"You're the best, dude. Gamora, can you please take his seat and be my eyes on your side of the ship?"

She nodded and took place gracefully. They were slowly approaching the petrified forest they had grazed on their arrival and the trees looked even more menacing now. And Peter didn't seem to make a move to bypass it. "You know you're heading right for the trees, don't you?"

She looked at him briefly. He was focused, probably calculating every trajectory.

"Yeah, I know. The forest is too big for us to go around and the trees seem to be sufficiently spaced apart for us to fly through if we stay under the branches."

"They seem to be? What if they are not?!"

"They have to be. We don't have much choice anyway… ready?"

He winked at her and she nodded, unconsciously gripping at her armrests. She trusted him and his flying skills, but she couldn't help the logical part of her brain from calculating the odds, and they weren't good. Without navigation nor anything that could assist with flying, the ship had to be as manageable as a washing machine.

Despite everything, Peter expertly maneuvered the ship toward a large gap between the trees, staying close enough to the ground in case they went completely out of power and had to crash again, while remaining high enough not to be surprised by an obstacle on the way. He used the left and right thrusters with brief bursts to guide the Milano inside the maze of gray trunks unfolding before their eyes.

"Well, I would never have thought of that," Gamora said in amazement. Instead of the near darkness she had expected and dreaded, the forest adorned itself with a phosphorescent glow coming from the ground and illuminating the trunks and branches, bathing them in an eerie green light.

"Too bad this planet's a death trap moving through space and time, it sure has interesting scenery." Peter joked.

Rocket's voice came from the lower levels as he was climbing the ladder back to them. "I have good and bad news, which one do you want fir… Oh." He stopped, mesmerized by the strange ballet the gigantic petrified trunks were forming around the Milano.

"Let's be crazy, gimme the good news first," Peter answered quietly, his focus unwavering.

Rocket hesitated for a second, not wanting to disturb their pilot anymore while in the middle of a delicate maneuver, but then he remembered it was Quill he was speaking to. The guy was capable of singing and dancing in a middle of a combat and hit his marks right between the eyes anyway.

"I've found my portable scanner, I can calibrate it to find the specific items we need. And the core batteries are not entirely depleted, we have more than we need to go into hyper-drive and to the nearest station. Bad news is that the converter is fried. It's a good thing you cut everything except the thrusters 'cause anything more would have overexerted the core reactor and we'd have gone kaboom." He sat on the nearest chair and buckled his harness, his eyes following the trees up to the firmament.

"Okay, no overexerting the core, duly noted. Great...everything's great." Peter quickly boosted the thrusters to avoid a low branch that appeared right in front of them. "Silver lining is that we have more chances to find a power converter than a fully charged battery here."

"Yeah, well, we still have to get out of the glowing forest of doom and find a wreck first." Rocket countered while fiddling with his portable scanner. "Hey! I've pinged on something!"

"Awesome! Where?"

"A few yards above us."

"Above?" Peter repeated, taken aback, but starting the ascent maneuver nonetheless. The ship rose gently into the air, until the branches started to become too dense to navigate into. "I can't go higher without risking damage to the ship. You see something?"

"I think I do..." Gamora answered, pointing toward a gray mass a few feet before them.

"Yeah, that's it," Rocket confirmed, looking at his device.

Peter stabilized the Milano into a stationary position. "Can your scanner analyze it to check if it has anything we need?"

Rocket shook his head. "Nope, sorry. We'll have to go see by ourselves."

Peter stayed silent for a moment, absent-mindedly scratching the scruff under his chin while he considered their options. "Rocket and I will go. Gamora, please keep the ship steady and watch our back?"

He got out of his seat and she took his place, but not before telling him to stay vigilant.

On their way down to the airlock exit, they put on their complete space-suits, not wanting to expose themselves to whatever was making the ground and air glow in the dark.

Once the circular door opened, Peter realized they'd have to climb onto the ship to reach the nearest branch. Problem was the rungs on the hull were made on a human scale. He looked down to find his friend glaring at him with his arms crossed against his chest.

"We don't have very much choice, buddy."

Rocket huffed. "Alright, alright. I'll climb on your back. Ugh, this is so humiliating."

He settled and Peter started the ascent. "I don't get it, you climb on Groot's shoulders all the time."

"It's not the same. With Groot, I usually have my big guns and we look scary. Here I'm like a child sitting on his dad's shoulders!"

Peter laughed. "Okay, okay. After this, I promise I'll buy you an ice cream, kiddo."

"Ha. ha. ha. You're such a funny guy, Star-dork."

"It's part of my charm." He finally reached the top of the ship and let Rocket get off him. "See? That wasn't so bad."

"Speak for yourself." The raccoon looked at the intricate gray canopy above them. "So, what's the plan?"

Peter moved toward the edge of the ship the closest to the tree, measuring the distance thoughtfully. "Can you jump that far?"

Rocket stood by his side and sighed. "No."

Quill shifted uneasily on his feet, hesitating. "So uh, what do uh..."

The raccoon rolled his eyes and scaled again on his friend's back. Once settled, he gave Peter a little tap on the shoulders with his heels and declaimed: "Onward to battle!"


	7. 07-Nuclear-Powered crowbar

**07-Nuclear-powered crowbar**

After a few minutes of slipping, swearing, nearly falling to their death and awkward climbing, the pair finally reached what looked like a much damaged M-5 craft. The thing was badly tangled into big tortuous branches. They jumped as lightly as possible on the wing closest to them and Peter was carefully testing the ground to feel if it seemed stable enough when Rocket hailed him.

"You found something?"

Rocket pointed at something at the other end of the shipwreck. "Dunno, looks like a top winglet in good enough condition to you?"

Peter smiled at him. "Yeah, it does! Come on, let's go get it." He crouched to slip under the biggest bough and started to worm his way between the branches, mindful of the sharp ends against his suit. The wreck was covered with a thick layer of glowing dust that rose and filled the air with every step or move they made and he really didn't want to get exposed to it. Above him, Rocket was using his natural agility to run and jump on the branches like if he was doing parkour and Peter couldn't help but smile fondly at the sight.

He contorted himself one last time and caught up with Rocket who was waiting for him with a smug smile. "Feeling too big, Star-Lewd?"

The terran snorted at the new nickname. "Good one, but please don't use it again."

The raccoon pretended to consider it for a moment then started to laugh wholeheartedly. "Naw. I like it. I can't believe I didn't think about it sooner!"

Peter chuckled and shook his head, raising his hands in mock surrender. "So, top winglet. You think you can make it fit in place of our missing one?"

Rocket looked at the piece of metal they were standing next to and crouched, chasing the strange dust covering it with his glove-covered hand. "Seems doable. Hand me the anti-baryonic screwdriver."

Quill rummaged into his purse knapsack and gave him the tool, then squat next to his friend to start helping him unscrew the precious component.

Rocket paused dramatically when he realized what Peter was using. "What is that thing?"

The terran showed him his hand. "This? It's the Swiss-army knife my grandpa gave me. I had it in my backpack when, you know." He quickly showed his friend how the thing worked.

Rocket manipulated the knife with a dumbfounded look. "And you still use it? But it's so primitive! No offense."

Peter smiled, taking his item back. "None taken. It's primitive but it does the job, you just have to use a little more elbow grease than with your pumped up screwdriver. Don't get me wrong, I love the awesome technology we have access to and I can't resist a new toy, but sometimes old and primitive don't mean useless."

The raccoon chuckled. "Yeah, I guess so. You and your terran technology."

"It's been almost thirty years, I guess the technology has evolved during my absence." Peter said, successfully unlocking a screw.

"You never tried to go back?"

"No."

"Why? I mean, if I knew where I came from, I think I'd be curious to see what changed." The way Quill didn't seem to want to go to Terra even if he couldn't stop making references about it always bugged him, even more as the guy was the only one on the team who might have some family alive and a home-world to come back to.

Peter sighed. "One time, when I was still a kid, Yondu brought us to this big asteroid with some sort of an amusement park built on it. The crew was there to meet with a broker but Yondu let me wander off inside the park and even gave me some money to do whatever I wanted to. It was the first time since I was with the Ravagers that I got to act like the kid I was and have some fun and, man, it was such a great day. As I grew up I always wanted to go back there, 'cause I had such wonderful memories of this magical place. And we did go back once. I was, I don't know, maybe eighteen or twenty, and it felt like a cold shower. I saw all the sordid details I hadn't the first time, the hookers on every corner, the way some of the stallholders were lurking at the innocent kids..."

He paused, keeping his focus on working on the winglet. "And that's it dude. Yondu abducted me when I was eight years old. The memories I have of my planet are the ones of a dreamy kid and I know it's stupid, but I want to preserve them, even if my last day on Terra was the worst day of my life. I… I know the world has kept on living and evolving without me. I know that if I go back there, everything would have changed, plus my grandpa's probably dead by now. I'd be as alien as you or any other member of the team on my own planet."

Rocket nodded wordlessly. It made sense, kind of. They kept working in companionable silence until Quill absent-mindedly started humming one of his songs and soon the winglet was free for the taking. Since the thing was too big to fit into a knapsack, Peter decided to bring it back to the Milano while Rocket was assigned the task to find a way to get inside the wreck in case it had a power converter they could use.

Finding a door that wasn't entirely crushed or clogged by branches and debris took longer than expected, and when Rocket finally spotted one, Peter was already back from his little trip.

The terran found his friend flat on his belly on what probably had once been the bottom of the ship but now was on top, swearing like a trooper and apparently struggling to find a way to open the hatch.

"What's up, Ranger Rick? Need a nuclear-powered crowbar to open the thing up?"

The raccoon answered with a long list of profanities in his most colorful language. Quill laughed and offered to help, but paused when he couldn't find his Swiss-army knife.

Rocket looked up sheepishly, holding the terran item "Mine wasn't doing squat, so I got curious and tried yours… smtwrk." His last words were totally mumbled.

"Sorry, what?" Peter asked, barely holding a grin.

"I said it seems to work. Happy?" Rocket grumbled.

Quill smiled broadly and caught up with his friend, helping him unbolt the last screws holding the hatch. The trap door opened creaking, the grating sound reverberating in the heavy silence surrounding them. Peter went in first, his flashlight illuminating the insides of the ship for the first time in what seemed to be ages, and Rocket jumped down after him. Due to the awkward position of the wreckage, everything was upside down and navigating inside turned out to be a challenge as the first steps on what was supposed to be a ceiling were not done without toe bumping and harsh swearing. The phosphorescent dust covering everything inside was slowly harnessing the energy produced by the flashlights and soon the surrounding darkness disappeared in favor of a greenish glow.

Startled by Rocket's sudden cry of surprise, Peter followed him into a little room at his left to find him staring at something above his head. He stepped forward and discovered what had startled his fellow teammate. The seats were still occupied by the crew, or what was left of it, the mummified bodies hanging upside down by their belts. They were all weirdly glowing as if their remains had absorbed the luminescent components floating in the air.

The two friends carefully stepped back, unconsciously not wanting to disturb the dead, and headed to the machinery room next door.

After a slight struggle to get the metallic door open, they stepped in to find the room ripped open by a solid and invasive branch.

"Well, that's our luck." Peter deadpanned.

"The central core and power converter are completely gutted." Rocket added. "There's nothing I can do with that."

"Let's go then. I don't want to stay in here more than needed." The former Ravager said, already on his way back.

The raccoon was about to follow his friend when he felt the ship move. "Whoa! What did you do!?"

"Nothing, why would I..."Peter was about to step over the casing of the door when he felt it too. The ship was tilting noticeably now. "Run!"

They both raced as everything started to sway around them, the ship disengaging itself faster and faster from its prison of fossilized wood, and the sound of branches breaking against metal was almost deafening. The ship started tilting so much they were reduced to climb the walls to get to the exit, avoiding the best they could the objects and other bodies falling on them. When he felt the wreckage losing its last support and starting to fall, Peter grabbed Rocket by the collar of his suit and activated his jet-boots. They whooshed out in an elliptical trajectory, dived into the branches of the nearest tree, the first ones breaking under the force of the impact, until one eventually resisted and Peter found himself suspended by one hand, Rocket dangling by the neck in the other.

"I hate it when you do this." The raccoon grumbled from his awkward position.

"What, save your life?" Quill asked, his voice a tad strained with effort. In a circular motion, he lifted his friend and threw him on the branch above them, then climbed on said branch before allowing himself to catch his breath.

"… Yes." Rocket answered, his voice still moody but his face grinning.

"Duly noted. Remind me not to do it next time," Peter countered then saw his friend's sudden anxious face. "You alright?"

"Flarking day couldn't get flarkin' better." The raccoon showed him a tear on the side of his suit, where the suspicious glowing dust had penetrated and stained his fur.

"Ah, damn," Quill sighed anxiously. "We better hurry. Back at the Milano, you'll take a full decontamination shower." Not wasting any time, he started climbing his way back to the ship.

"Aaw, noooo…" Rocket whined behind him. "Look, it's just a small tear! It's probably nothing."

"Sorry buddy, but I won't take the risk. I know decontamination is a pain in the ass, but do you really want to look like those phosphorescent pruny cadavers we saw back there?"

"Well, at least you'd see me in the dark. No more walking on my tail at night."

Peter huffed. "Oh come on! It happened only once! And since you nearly clawed my eye out by accident a few days later I'd say we're even."

Rocket chuckled but didn't answer back, his mind not wanting to stop focusing on what was awaiting him. Peter was right, he had to put up with it, but decontamination showers were the worst. They took hours to go through, longer if you were covered in fur, were excruciating and left you sore and tired to the bone for days.

The rest of the journey back to the Milano was mostly silent and uneventful and they soon jumped back on the left wing. What they weren't prepared for was to find a seething Gamora standing in the cockpit, eyes sending daggers at them. She said something but the sound didn't reach their ears.

Peter's hand jumped at the side of his spherical helmet to fiddle with his communications carrier. "Oh, shit. I think something interfered with our comms."

Rocket nodded. "Yeah, I can hear you but nothing else. Weird." They looked at each other like kids caught stealing from the cookie jar. "Okay, I've got a decontamination shower to take, I'll let you deal with Gamora. Good luck!"

The raccoon almost ran to the other side of the ship, leaving Peter alone in front of Gamora, the two only separated by the great windshield of the cockpit. Quill waved sheepishly at her then made a quick sign to tell her he had to follow Rocket.


	8. 08-Pinkie Promise

**08-Pinkie promise**

Peter found Gamora in the same position on the bridge, standing still with her arms crossed against her chest and jaw so tightly clenched her tendons appeared through the skin.

"Hey… Apparently there was a glitch with our comms, sorry. We uh, found a top winglet that we can use, but the power converter was busted, so we still have to find one..." He fidgeted on his feet, not sure what to tell her, until he noticed she was shaking slightly. "Gamora?" He closed in on her, their hands almost touching, and he bowed his head to try and find her eyes. "What's wrong?"

"I saw you both enter the wreckage. Then I saw it fall and… I never saw you get out."

"Oh."

"I called, again and again, and you didn't answer. I couldn't leave the ship because neither Drax or Groot can maneuver it in their current state and I couldn't lower the ship to take a look at the wreckage in case you got out and were still coming back here, which you did eventually, I didn't know what to do..."

Peter closed the gap between them and gently took her in his arms, her forehead resting on the crook of his neck and his hands moving soothingly on her back and hair. "I'm sorry we worried you."

"Not your fault the comms chose this specific time to malfunction." Her muffled voice resonated against his shoulder.

"Still, I'm sorry."

They stayed like this for a few moments, enjoying the slight reprieve in this crazy day, until Gamora gently removed herself from his embrace. "Where's Rocket?"

"In the decontamination shower. He got a tear in his suit when we escaped and got exposed to that weird glowing dust." Quill answered, settling into his seat.

"Is he going to be alright?" the Zehoberei woman asked, looking at him with worried eyes.

Peter shrugged, unsure what to say. "We don't know what that stuff is, it's probably not dangerous and it was only a small exposure. But I didn't want to take the risk, you know?"

He slowly turned the thrusters down a notch, lowering the ship so they could resume their journey through the petrified forest. "Still, he's going to be out of it for a while. This is crazy. This damn planet is taking us down one by one, it's like this novel my mom read to me when she tried to get me interested in something else than comic books… About a group of folks that get murdered one after the other on an island. Damn thing scared the shit out of me."

Gamora eyed him with this puzzled look only he could get out of her. "Why would your mother chose such a frightening story?"

He got this sweet smile he always wore when he shared a fond memory about his mother. "It was scary and I had nightmares about it at first but it had this great suspense, we would share theories about what we thought was coming next, who I thought was the murderer… She was already sick and it was good to think about something else. She also told me it was the first book she had loved when she was a kid and that she was a little older than I was when she first read it, but knew I was stronger than her. I guess she already knew she wasn't going to be around long enough to read it with me when I was old enough to properly enjoy it..."

"She wanted to share it with you." his friend commented, smiling at him.

"Yeah. And what about you? Your parents never scarred you to life with some made up stories?"

She laughed. "My people didn't have such a fascination for fiction as yours. My parents would tell me about the feat of some legendary warriors from the ancient times and sometimes they were scary, but these stories were all about events that truly happened once."

"Oh."

"I think we have reached the end of the forest, there is natural light once again right over there."

Peter nodded and steered the ship toward the light. In the labyrinth of trunks and branches, he didn't have a way to get his bearings and the scenery that appeared before them as they exited the forest wasn't at all like the rocky landscape they had raced over before the crash. The only things left visible of the giant sun now were the coronal loops dancing high in the sky, their faint light illuminating a muddy sea, or lake, stretching as far as the eye could see in front of them, bordered by tortuous looking mountains. Here and there, puffs of fumes sprung out with large, sloppy bubbles of mud splashing droplets everywhere.

"Wow. I didn't think we'd see a swamp here, with the giant sun burning everything and all…" Peter mused, guiding the ship toward his left, where it seemed the mud met the mountains in what looked like a beach, just in case they had to do an emergency landing once again.

"Maybe it was a sea before the water evaporated," Gamora wondered absent-mindedly, her attention caught by an odd ripple on the surface. "Beware; I think something is moving right under us."

"What do you mea... Oh shit!" Peter sharply swerved the Milano to the right, then the left, boosting the thrusters to avoid the gigantic worm-like monster that had jumped out of the mud to swallow them. The ugly thing was so big the ship looked like a small bird in front of it, each of its hundreds of teeth bigger than the Milano itself. The worm dived on them and Peter shut the thrusters, letting the ship fall fast before firing them up again, avoiding the infernal mouth by a few inches. The monster gave it another try, its massive body slamming against the hull and sending the ship into a succession of loop-the-loops Quill had a hard time stopping. Next to him, Gamora was breathing fast to fight the nausea and he didn't want to think about the rest of his friends being tossed everywhere around the ship. Focusing on their escape only, he managed to stabilize the Milano and put some distance between them and the worm. Seeing that its prey was about to escape, the enormous monster charged once again and Peter had to slither quickly, zigzagging the best he could with little to no navigation available and praying silently that he wasn't overexerting the core reactor.

They finally managed to reach the shore and Quill hid them behind a rocky peak, smoothly landing the ship on a flat hard surface. Only then he allowed himself to take a deep breath and gazed at Gamora, whose dumbfounded look probably matched his. "Well, that was fun. Let's never do that again?"

Gamora shook her head, giving him a short laugh. "Yes, please."

"I'm going to check on the guys, can you keep an eye out for anything else wanting to eat the ship?"

"Sure."

Peter jumped down the ladder to be greeted by an anxious "I am Groot?"

The Flora Colossus was standing in the middle of the room, head cocked and his big eyes full of innocence, making him look like a giant wooden puppy. His arm had almost grown back to full length and he seemed unharmed otherwise.

"Hey buddy, sorry for the bumpy ride. Where's Drax?"

Groot showed him the closed door of the bathroom. Frowning, Peter quickly went by the door and knocked on it lightly. "Drax? Everything okay in here?"

He heard movement inside, then the door opened to reveal a very pale and queasy Destroyer. "Damn, you look bad… Did you hit your head again?" Peter asked anxiously.

Drax smiled faintly but didn't make a move, not trusting his balance. "No, I did not. But my stomach did not tolerate to be shaken like this."

"Yeah, sorry about that. We're taking a little break now but after I've made sure Rocket is fine we'll get out of here fast. You're going to be alright?"

"I might not be at ease for a moment, but you needn't worry, Peter Quill."

Peter sighed and patted his friend on the shoulder before leaving him. He hated to see his teammates hurt or not feeling well, as he felt it was his duty to ensure they were safe and happy. The Guardians worked more as a democracy than the sole leadership that usually ruled life in a spacecraft. They decided their next work together, and everyone's voice mattered.

The rest of the Galaxy might view him as the leader because they needed a face to represent them and he was the most negotiation-savvy of the team, but that was it for him. Except that in moments like this, when they were all in danger, his friends trusted him and his decisions to guide and protect them with an absolute certainty and a faith in him that always left him full of wonder. He never had this kind of responsibility before, always avoided it, and now he had a gang of the most dangerous misfits in the Galaxy to look after and it kept him awake at night, wondering how it happened and fearing the day they would realize he was just a thief with no leadership ability whatsoever.

He reached the decontamination room with a knot in his gut. The special shower was a very small space with no handle to hold on to and Rocket must have felt like in a pinball machine. "Rocket?" he called softly. "Buddy?"

"WHAT. THE. HELLS. HAPPENED?" The grumpy voice boomed through the metallic door.

Peter let out a relieved laugh and leant his back against the cold surface, sliding down until he sat on the floor, head in hands and elbows resting on his knees. Thank gods, he's alive.

"A giant ugly worm tried to eat the ship with us inside. Can you believe that?"

"Well, I was hoping you had a really good reason for all that roller coaster thing you just did. Thought you had a stroke while piloting or that you tried to teach your dance moves to the ship or whatever, but giant worm? Eh, why not."

Quill rested his head against the door, hitting it lightly in a slight balancing movement, knowing he had to ask the dreaded question. "Are you hurt?"

Rocket liked to keep to himself, especially when it involved his medical condition, and often belittled his injuries until Peter had to remind him he could trust them with his health. But trust took time and even if things got better between them, the former ravager knew his friend was not quite there yet.

"Mostly bumps and bruises to add to the collection. Nothing's broken, no bleeding either."

"You sure?" Peter knew this tone of voice. Genuine but with a catch.

"Yeah, yeah... Well I uh, kinda landed funny on my wrist. But it's not broken, I promise."

"Sorry."

"Not your fault, not really."

"How's the decontamination going?"

"Awful, as expected. At least the shaky-shake thing made it a little entertaining."

"Well, you know me, I'm all about a little entertainment." He heard Rocket's short laugh echoing inside the small room and smiled, then picked himself up. "Okay, time to go. I can't promise a smooth ride with everything going on there, but I'll do my best."

"I know you will."

"You hang in there, okay?" He gave three little taps on the door to indicate his leaving.

"Don't go all mushy on me, Star-soft."

"Come on, you know you love it when I do."

The last thing he heard before exiting the room was a hearty laugh. On his quick walk back to the bridge, he was surprised to find the main quarters empty, but was glad to find both Groot and Drax harnessed to their seats in the cockpit, all fine and ready to go. Even better was that Drax had gotten back to his natural coloring.

"Is Rocket fine?" Gamora inquired.

"It was no pleasure cruise, but nothing serious," he settled into his seat and buckled his harness. "No giant worm in sight?"

"It did not find us here anyhow, but I found something on Rocket's portable scanner," She showed him the red dot flickering on the screen. "It seems to be located beyond that mountain."

Peter started the thrusters and took off slowly. "Seems like we've found our next stop. I'll need you guys to watch for ripples on the surface of the mud, our giant friend is probably still looking for us and we might not get so lucky next time."

They stayed as far as possible from the muddy sea, no one uttering a word or daring to break the pilot's concentration. Fortunately, the giant monster didn't show up again and they managed to reach the other side of the mountain and the end of the sea without trouble. Before them displayed new scenery as the mud and rocks gave way for a patch of arid earth and flat topped hills covered with short and sparse vegetation.

"What the Hells?" Peter exclaimed at the sight of a structure dominating the landscape.

"I think that is what the scanner detected." Gamora said.

"This is huge..."

"I am Groot." the sentient tree agreed.

"Its shape reminds me of the usual architecture of the Universal Church of Truth." Drax said.

"I think this is one of their Templeships," Gamora added, "but only a part of it."

"Ugh, I hate the Universal Church of Truth." the former ravager huffed.

His friends agreed in concert.

Now that they were close enough to see the details, they could confirm Drax and Gamora's assumptions. The Templeship was the size of your typical mothership except the gun-turrets looked like steeples. The far end of the ship was missing and its front was embedded in a hill. Even with a good chunk missing, the thing was massive and looked like a creepy deserted town.

"Looks like our friend the giant worm had a religious meal." Peter joked.

Gamora smiled. "I think you're right". She frowned when she realized they weren't getting close to the wreckage anymore. "You don't want to inspect it?"

"I'd rather not," Quill answered, "First, I don't think their technology matches ours and second, I really, really don't want to risk finding survivors… Look," he pointed at the Templeship. "No dust, no vegetation taking over the ship and the fragments around the wreckage are still clearly visible. This seems fairly recent to me."

Gamora was about to object that they might not find another wreckage to plunder when the scanner in her hands made a beeping sound, another red dot appearing on the edge of the screen. "Fine. It seems like we have another candidate at about twenty miles from here." She showed him the coordinates, hoping that this time they'd find what they needed to leave the planet for good.

The landscape evolved as they went along, the arid earth and hills gradually disappearing in favor of a spectacular desert of sand, the shimmering dunes reflecting the last rays of sun in red and purple flashes. It was breathtakingly beautiful.

A bit further, they could distinguish the shape of a ship partially buried in the sand. Peter landed as close to it as he could and they all went down to the main quarters to prepare. Quill took his guns from their loading station and filled his knapsack with a few more deadly and useful gadgets, then turned to his friends.

"Okay, Gamora and I will go inspect the premises while Drax and Groot keep guard of the ship. Put your spacesuits on 'cause we don't know if we're gonna meet some other invisible creatures and I don't want a repeat of what happened earlier."

Gamora nodded and went to her bunk to get her suit while Groot headed for the armory to gear up. Meanwhile, Drax took Peter aside, obviously upset with his assignment. "I am not an invalid."

Peter sighed. "I know. I know you're a better fighter than I am even with only one good arm, but you're concussed and I wouldn't forgive myself if something happened to you. Plus, I really need you to keep an eye on both Rocket and Groot. I know Rocket will be mad that we went without him but we don't really have the time to wait for him to shake off the tiredness induced by the decontamination process. And what if another queen tries to take over the ship while we're out? I can't let Groot be on his own against it, we've seen what they can do to him… See? You won't be useless at all, far from it."

Drax smiled. "I know you have your doubts, but you're naturally good at this."

"At what?"

"Being our leader."

"What? I'm no leader," Quill scoffed, "I just improvise on the fly, and I have literally no idea what I'm doing ninety percent of the time!"

The Destroyer shrugged. "If you say so." He patted his friend on a shoulder then went to get his suit. When Drax made it his secret mission to give his friends the same peace of mind they had offered him, he hadn't realized how hard it would be. When they accepted him as their friend and ally, giving him back this long lost sense of belonging, it awoke the fatherly side of him with an undeniable urge to love and protect them as if they were his. He knew they all had issues, he just hadn't imagined how deeply rooted they were. But nothing would prevent him from reaching his goal. One way or another, he would teach them to love and accept themselves, damn it!

Meanwhile, Peter had stopped by the decontamination room to check on Rocket.

"Hey, it's me, how's it going?"

"Oh, you know, the usual. Getting my fur almost peeled off, wishing I'd never existed…" The raccoon sounded miserable.

"I know buddy, I know. It should be almost over now. Look, we've found another crashed ship to inspect, Gamora and I are going to pay it a visit, see if we can find a power converter. In the meantime, if you feel up to it, I'd like you to fix the top winglet, so we can leave this hellhole fast."

"Yeah, sure."

"Thanks, Rocket."

Peter had almost left the room when he heard his friend's voice through the metallic door.

"You two be careful out there."

"Pinkie promise."

"I never understood this one."

"Understood what?" Quill came back by the door, intrigued.

"This thing you have for promising on your pinkie like it gives value to your promise. I know the thing is a precious part of your anatomy but…"

The former ravager did a double take. "Sorry, what? What do you think a pinkie is?"

"Well, your dick… or your wee-wee, I don't know what you call it in private."

Peter exploded in laughter, unable to take his breath or make an intelligible sentence for a short while. "Oh my… you… no! That's not what a pinkie is, at all!"

Rocket had finally finished the last round and the door opened to reveal a Peter Quill holding his sides, face red and eyes shining with laughter tears. If he hadn't been so worn out by the decontamination process, the raccoon would have probably been offended but he did not have the strength right now. "Okay, enlighten me, please?"

"The pinkie is the name we give to the little finger. It's a thing children do, when we make a promise, we join our little fingers like this," Peter showed him the gesture, "and it adds some formality to it."

Rocket snickered. "Pinkie means wiener in Xandarian, it's rarely used but I can't believe you've never heard it… You mean that all this time, you were being cute and we all thought you were using some kind of gross turn of phrase?

"YES!"

They looked at each other and erupted in another fit of laughter. Rocket wiped his eyes with a tired hand. "Thanks dude, I needed it. I can't wait to tell Gamora."

"Yeah well, let's all mock my cuteness later, I really have to go." The former Ravager smiled and left the room lightheartedly to the sound of Rocket having a fit of the giggles.


	9. 09-Shipwrecked

**09-Shipwrecked**

Peter met Gamora in the docking bay. She was wearing her spacesuit but had placed the spherical glass helmet between her arm and side, laying on her hip, as she was waiting until the last minute to put it on. "How's Rocket?"

"He's tired, but good."

"I heard you laughing." She said, putting on her helmet and checking if the comms were working.

"Yeah, something got lost in translation," he activated his mask and moved next to the airlock exit. "Ready?"

The sand was so fine they sank into it up to mid-calf, and by the time they reached the other ship they were both out of breath.

"I'm so done with this place." Peter grumbled between pants.

"Agreed." Gamora answered, also finding it hard to catch her breath. She ran her hand on the metallic hull. "Have you seen markings like these before?"

Quill glanced at the odd ship. "No. I've never seen a ship made with this kind of alloy either… I wonder where it came from." The ship had an oblong shape, covered with a black smooth hull and had absolutely no window or any door visible.

"We need to find a way in."

They turned around the mysterious spacecraft, running their hands on the hull and looking for a bump or anything that could reveal a door. Feeling restless, Peter used his jet-boots to jump on top of the slightly slippery surface, getting on all fours and hitting the hull with his fist until something gave in with a click. He stepped backwards when the trap opened suddenly like a jack-in-the-box, lost his balance, slid down the hull head first and found himself half buried in the sand, thankful to his mask for allowing him to breathe nonetheless.

Witnessing her friend's fall, Gamora sighed and ran the best she could back to him. The sight he offered was fairly comical, with his legs up kicking against the hull and his hands jutting out of the sand. She put a hand against one of his legs to let him know she was here. He stopped kicking, not wanting to hit her inadvertently, and she grabbed his hands to pull him out. They struggled for a moment until he popped out and landed on top of her, mask bumping against her helmet. They remained like this long enough to catch their breath then extracted themselves from each other awkwardly.

"I guess after all I'm not entirely immune to whatever this planet's doing to all of you," Peter said as he was getting back on his feet and vigorously dusting the sand out of his clothes, "I'm getting spectacularly clumsy."

Gamora snorted and helped him get rid of the sand stuck in his hair and mask. "What happened?"

"I've found a trapdoor on the top, then decided to dive with style into the fluffiest sand I've ever seen to impress you. Tell me it worked." he said playfully.

"Are you saying you fell head over heels for me, Star-Lord?" she answered with a mocking smile.

He paused and cocked his head a little, as if he was carefully choosing his next words. "I know I did."

There was a sudden seriousness in his tone that left her wondering if there was a terran expression she had missed somewhere in their conversation, but she didn't have time to ask as he jumped from one subject to another and asked her if she needed a lift to reach the upper side of the shipwreck.

She was tempted to decline his help as she didn't really need it; with proper time and readying she would have been able to climb the smooth and slippery surface on her own; but they were in a hurry and it was the fastest solution. She nodded and he grabbed her by the waist before activating his jet-boots and propelling them right on top of the craft, where the trap was still open.

The insides of the ship were even weirder than what they could see from outside, and way bigger. Everything was plunged into darkness but their helmets allowed Peter and Gamora to see that the corridor walls were finely decorated with what seemed like rich tapestries, marble and gold, and even a few statues of humanly shaped animals here and there.

"This ship must be heavy as hell," Peter commented. "Making it fly would require an unnecessary amount of energy… I mean, that's pretty if you're into that sort of shit, but who would do that?"

Gamora shrugged. "Saving energy was probably not a problem for whomever they were."

"Now I'm curious about their engines room," Quill said while opening another door giving into another break room. "If they ever had one."

"Now that we're inside, I think it was a luxury cruise ship," Gamora said as she was closing a bedroom door. "The engines room must be on a lower level."

After opening at least two dozen doors and only finding big, overly decorated bedrooms, a restaurant and three rooms clearly dedicated to amusement, they found themselves in a stalemate.

"I don't get it," Gamora said, "Is there any door we missed?"

Peter frowned. "Not a visible one, anyways."

"You think they hid the door giving onto the lower levels? Why would they do that?"

The former Ravager shrugged and ran his hand on the finely decorated wall in front of him. "Dunno. Maybe this floor is for insanely rich people only and they didn't want the lower classes to mingle with them?"

"That's… possible, actually." Gamora did the same as him and searched for asperities that could show a hidden entrance on the opposite wall.

They inspected the walls for a few moments before Peter called her. When she reached his position, she could see the thin slit between two slabs of marble, and no obvious way to open it. Quill was examining the nearest statue, then chuckled and pressed on one of its eyes. The doors slid open in an instant, revealing an aseptic corridor contrasting with the luxury surrounding them.

"I've always wanted to do that!" Peter said proudly, and even if she couldn't see his face due to him wearing his mask, Gamora could have bet he was grinning like a child.

They crossed the corridor to an elevator door and pried it open with difficulty, to find the car stuck between levels and no way to get around it. Before Peter could think of another solution, Gamora unsheathed her sword and cut the cables holding the elevator, which went down after two tries and crashed in an instant as the cut cables went flying all around them. Peter yelped and threw himself on the ground to avoid being cut in half while Gamora hid behind the wall, smiling.

"Wow," Quill said, picking himself up, "That's efficient for sure… but next time, give a guy a little notice, okay?"

Gamora shrugged nonchalantly and jumped down the shaft, grabbing the ladder effortlessly and starting her descent. Peter shook his head, laughing a little and followed her wordlessly. They reached the level below and found the doors jammed on a semi opened state that only Gamora could sneak in. She jumped down through the narrow passage and forced the doors open so that Peter could join her.

This floor was clearly destined to welcome well off travelers with its walls soberly decorated with a few paintings here and there and ground covered with rich blue carpeting. The first doors they opened lead into comfy bedrooms which, unlike the upper floor, showed signs of life with the beds undone and some personal belongings discarded in the closets.

The next room they went into was a vast break room with comfortable looking armchairs and a breakfast buffet. Some of the chairs were upside-down and some dried out pastries were scattered across the floor.

"They obviously left in a hurry." Gamora commented. When Peter didn't answer, she turned around to find him enthralled by a giant poster on the wall that looked like a map of an unknown world. Next to it was a long text in writings she couldn't decipher and what looked like an overall chart of the ship. "Peter, what's wrong?"

"Tha… that's..." Quill answered with a lump in his throat, so obviously distressed about what he was seeing that she unconsciously came closer to him. He looked at her briefly and came back to the poster as if it was the most fascinating thing he had ever seen. "This is a map of Terra."

He stepped closer to the map and touched it carefully, as if he was afraid it would break up under his fingers.

"Are you sure?" Gamora asked.

"Yes," He showed her a big shape on the map. "This is America. I was born there... I don't even remember where exactly; I think it was in the Midwest, maybe? The States aren't specified…"

"Terrans do not have the technology to build this kind of ship, Peter."

"I know but… We had approximately the same map in my class room, there's no mistaking it."

"What do those writings say?"

"I'm not sure… It's been so long since I've seen something written in English, except for the comics that were in my backpack when I left. I'm not even sure it's English, but this," he showed her the inscription at the far end of the text, "is a date and it kinda makes sense, in a mind-blowing way."

"What do you mean?"

"If I'm reading this correctly, this ship was built in year 3725. I left Earth in 1988 and even if it's been hard to keep track of terran time, it can't be more than year 2020 now, probably less. This ship is from at least 1700 years in the future!" He stepped back, scratching the back of his neck in wonder.

"Considering that this planet jumps randomly through space and time, it is possible."

"Yeah… Now I really want to see their engines room. This is so weird."

Gamora pointed at the chart. "I guess we are here, and this room here looks like the bridge, right?"

Peter concentrated on the words written in small characters, trying to remember how to read English. Despite his mom's best efforts he wasn't a very good reader before leaving Earth and since his departure he had to learn how to decipher totally different languages and writings. When he looked at his beloved comic books, he got the general meaning of the story from memory and from the drawings, but it had been a very long time since he had really tried to read the words. And now, looking at a map showing places he couldn't name painfully reminded him how little he knew about his home-world.

"I think so… And if I'm right, this right here is the engine room, nine stories below us."

"Alright. I would like to inspect the bridge first and see if we can access the captain's log. I don't know about you, but I wonder where everyone is."

Peter nodded, following her outside the room and to the bridge. "Yeah, the shipwreck we visited with Rocket was full of dead crew members. I kinda thought we'd find the same thing here," he stopped when facing the closed door to the bridge. "Okay, this is a little unsettling."

The double door was barricaded with chairs and broomsticks, the sand that obviously had invaded the bridge seeping out of every crack and covering the floor and chairs with a thin film of tiny, shiny grains. No way were they opening that door.

Gamora stepped back, disappointed. "Too bad for the logbook."

Quill nodded. "Let's hope the engines room isn't flooded too."

They went back into the elevator shaft and down to the lowest level they could reach, spanned over the remains of the elevator car to find a large metallic corridor partially crowded with sand. The sand had penetrated through the broken windows on the right side of the ship, pooling on the ground in front of four rooms and creating high dunes which the two friends escalated the best they could, hoping something important wasn't buried in there.

"Look!" Gamora called while sliding down the fourth dune and pointing at a door on her left, "The engines should be here."

"Finally!" answered Peter, almost out of breath. They rushed into the room to find it intact. The place was filled with shut off computers, each connected by cables to small metallic boxes linked to the core reactor.

Quill inspected one of the small boxes, let out an excited giggle and went back a few steps to open the back of a computer while Gamora was looking at him, puzzled.

"What are you doing, don't we need a power converter? This doesn't look like one." she said, casting an eye at the room. "In fact, nothing here looks like our power converter. The technology might be too different… I think we should not waste anymore time in here and go."

She was about to leave the room when Peter stopped her. There was eagerness in his voice, enough to make her curious about it.

"What?"

"This," he showed her a small printed circuit card he had carefully took off, "is all we need." He was literally bouncing with excitement, like an overgrown puppy. "Rocket's gonna love this so, so much." He turned over and started to unplug the wires linking the computer to the small box and pocketed them.

Gamora crossed her arms impatiently. "Do you plan on explaining this to me or what?"

Quill was about to answer when a grating noise made itself heard in the room next to them. "Guess we're not alone in here after all," he whispered, then pointed at the box and the cables linking it to the core. "Help me take that out quick, we're gonna need it."

Gamora set herself to work, unplugging the box and carefully putting it in her bag, while Peter was following the cables to find where they connected with the core. He found a small hatch he opened and sneaked his arm in, feeling around to find the connection point and stretched to the maximum until he found what he was looking for. After a few tries, he managed to unscrew the small wires from their junction connector, and felt an uncomfortable burn under his wrist on his way out.

"Ouch!" he said shaking his wrist, "beware of the wires, some of them still have some residual power in and will burn you like a son of a bitch."

Gamora let out a small laugh at his expression full of imagery and bagged the wires. "Poor you."

"Yeah, poor me. Wanna check the rest of the rooms before we get out of here?" Quill asked, putting the shoulder strap of his bag over his head and readying himself for whatever they might find.

Gamora pondered their options for a short while. They needed to leave the planet while they still were in their own space-time. But she was curious and having a chance to find out what had happened to the passengers and crew of this ship won over caution. She smiled, realizing that Peter's own adventurous spirit and recklessness were rubbing off on her. "Okay, but quickly."

They had to kick the door to the next room as it was partially jammed with a sticky substance. When it finally opened, it led them into the biggest room they had seen on this ship and it was filled with human-sized pods lined up like toy soldiers. The two friends kept moving to reach the closest pod and found it occupied by what used to be a man in a hibernation state. Now it was a desiccated body covered with tiny swarming bugs, not unlike the creatures that had attacked the Milano earlier, but on a much smaller scale. The bugs had weaved their cocoons all inside the pod and the man.

"Poor guy," Peter whispered, mesmerized and disgusted at the same time. "I hope he didn't wake up to this… that's an awful way to go."

Gamora nodded and stepped backwards to look at the other pods and an open cap standing out in the second row caught her attention. On their way to take a proper look at it, they discovered that almost all the pods were filled with corpses and bugs. Some of the victims had clearly woken too late to fight their demise, face and body stuck in a haunting tortured expression.

"I'm so gonna have nightmares about this." Peter said in a whisper, almost bumping into Gamora as she stopped abruptly in front of the open pod. The thing had obviously been forced open from the inside. The hinges were standing out, almost ripped from the frame and the glass cap was smashed in its center as if something powerful had kicked it open. Blood and slime pooled at the bottom of the pod, slowly dripping on the floor as a few bugs were swarming around the oxygen and nutrients inlet. "Well, now we know how those things got inside the pods," Quill said quietly. "The other bodies seem to have been in that rotting state for a long time, but doesn't this look awfully fresh to you too?"

"I have a bad feeling about this," Gamora murmured, tensing up. "We should go."

"Agreed!" Peter shouted, catching her by the arm and forcing her to run with him. She followed trustingly but turned her head to see what had startled him, and swore loudly. Behind them stood a hybrid, half-human half-creature, head cocked to the side and studying them threateningly. Unlike the creatures they had encountered earlier, it was standing on two legs and had a humanoid posture, but that probably was all that was left from the terran it once was. It looked like a skeleton, as if all its internal organs had disappeared and its skin had shrunken to stick to the bones, and its head had morphed into a hideous combination of human and insect. It also wasn't silent and emitted a weird combination of clicking and gurgling sounds. Elsewhere in the room, some kicking and smashing noises were starting to ring out and more pod caps popped open. Not wasting any more time, the two guardians escaped the room, hurried as fast as they could through the sand filled corridor, rushed into the elevator shaft and started climbing their way back to the top deck.

"Dammit, they're fast!" Quill exclaimed, looking down as they were about to reach the third level. Below them, a dozen of mutants were massing together into the shaft and a few of them had already started to climb the walls in the style of a very, very gross and nightmarish Spider-Man. The former ravager swore and drew his blaster, wincing when his hand protested as the burn started to hurt badly, and fired against the creatures that were catching up with them. Thankfully they still couldn't tolerate electrical shock and dropped like flies, getting in the way of the others.

Since he had not stopped climbing the ladder, Peter bumped his head against Gamora's foot. She didn't give him time to ask what was wrong and showed him a new wave of creatures coming from the now opened elevator doors to the fifth floor above them, and the doors to the eighth floor were currently being forced open too. She drew the stun-gun Rocket had given her and gave a nod to Peter who nodded back. Things were about to get ugly.


	10. 10-Come with me and escape

**10-Come with me and escape**

Their progression had considerably slowed down. They had to stop every time they climbed a step to fire at more attackers, Gamora shooting the ones coming from the top and Peter taking care of the ones below them. The things were incredibly fast and powerful considering their skeletal physique and, more worrisome, electrical shock stunned them but didn't kill them this time. Nothing seemed to, at least nothing coming from any sort of gun, and the two Guardians were working hard to keep the creatures far enough from them so they didn't have to find out if they were also knife resistant.

They had hit a rough patch reaching the fifth floor as the creatures were surrounding them and came close to grabbing them a few times, but they managed to pull through and they were now approaching the eighth floor where the mutants had succeeded in opening the door and now were rushing into the shaft.

"There's more of them," Gamora groaned, shooting at two creatures coming from above and dodging an unconscious body falling toward them, kicking it on its way down so it wouldn't hit Peter. She had noticed her friend had become more and more silent during their ascent and she couldn't help but worry. Silent Peter was never a good thing. "It looks like more victims survived the mutation on the higher levels. It makes me wonder… if the higher levels were for the wealthiest," She shot at a few mutants coming at them. "They probably also were healthier than the poor lads relegated to the basement."

She looked at Peter below her. He was shooting at the creatures and climbing awkwardly, using his forearm instead of his hand to hold on to the rungs.

"So they were more resistant to the process than the others," she resumed her thinking aloud, never stopping shooting at the beasts coming at them from the eighth floor. "Do you think the creatures we encountered earlier in the Milano were also the result of a mutation from whatever those little bugs did to another species?"

Quill answered with a grunt. Okay, something was definitively wrong with him.

"Peter, are you alright?"

Ah, damn. She had to ask. "Yeah. Just tired that's all." He lied. His left hand was completely numb from pain now, and he couldn't use it to shoot anymore. He had found a way to hold on to the rungs without using it either, but that wasn't the most effective way to climb a ladder and it was taxing on his already tired body.

They were right next to the door to the eighth level now, and the flow of creatures coming from it was beginning to lessen. They had to stop their ascent for a while to stun all of the mutants as fast as they went, but some of them managed to slip through the beams of energy and got way too close for comfort.

One of them jumped and latched on Peter's leg, hanging on as the former Ravager tried to kick it out as best as he could with his other free leg. Quill couldn't use his stun-gun as he knew the blast would spread and hit him too, so he worked harder on his kicking and finally found a spot tender enough on the former human's head to make it let go off him and the thing fell, not without bringing with it a piece of his pants. Flark. Now they were definitely ruined.

The sound of struggle above him made him raise his head. Gamora was currently fighting a creature clinging to her arm, making her unable to use her gun. The thing was sticking to the wall, slowly and strongly pulling the young warrior out of the ladder, its claws digging into her flesh and drawing blood. Forgetting his own pain, Peter sheathed his gun to climb the few rungs separating him from his friend in an instant, grabbed the sword hanging from her waist and swung it as far as he could from his awkward position, hitting the mutant in the flank. The thing wailed and released its prey, taking a few steps back. Quill gave Gamora her sword back and resumed shooting at the creatures surrounding them while she cut through the ones coming too close to them.

After a while, the creatures stopped coming from the door and the ones recovering from the stun-guns effects were far enough to allow the Guardians to take a much needed breath.

"That was close. How's your arm?" Peter asked.

"The cuts are deep but my nanites will take care of it. And you?" She could see how heavily he was leaning against the rungs.

"I'm okay." He said, fighting a wave of dizziness.

"You know I don't believe you."

"I know."

"Will you be able to climb the last two floors?"

He nodded. "Yeah, don't worry." He shot at the few mutants scaling the walls toward them even if they were five stories down, just to be safe, and resumed his own ascent.

A few exhausting moments later, they finally reached the tenth floor. Gamora hauled herself up by the door then helped Peter do the same and sat him against the wall while she closed the doors and barricaded them quickly.

She squat next to her friend, whose heavy breathing was becoming worrisome. "Show me your hand".

Peter grunted and stood up again, using the wall to support himself. "There will be plenty of time for that when we're safe inside the Milano. Come on."

Gamora huffed in frustration and followed him through the short metallic hallway giving access to the richest part of the ship. "At least tell me what's wrong with it."

"Dunno, didn't stop to look at it. Thought I burnt it against a wire but it doesn't feel like it anymore."

She was about to ask for more details when some noise made itself heard through their comms. Amid the static, Rocket's words were incomprehensible but his voice sounded frantic. As they exited the small hallway and went back into the richly decorated corridor by which they had come in, they realized large amounts of sand were slipping through the trap they had used to go inside.

"…. SINKING!… OUT… HERE NOW!" Rocket's voice boomed through their comms.

They briefly looked at each other and darted toward their way of escape. The sand was already forming dunes on the ground, complicating their access to the small emergency ladder. They floundered in the dunes and were thankful for their helmets when the thin sand started to copiously shower them. Gamora grabbed the lowest rung above her and hauled herself easily through the hatch, and then Peter followed her with less grace and ease. She helped him drag himself on the smooth top of the ship and stood to look for the Milano while he rested at her feet, fighting another wave of dizziness.

The giant sun had completely set now but the sky was still a vaguely bright hint of reddish gray. Above them, the front beams of the Milano were almost blinding up in the air.

"Rocket, why is the ship flying without us inside?" Peter asked, slightly out of breath.

"Use your jet-boots to join us, right now!" Rocket roared urgently into the comms.

"Okay, but… why?" The former Ravager stood up and was about to argue with his friend when the ground started shaking under his feet and giant tentacles appeared suddenly all around the shipwreck, towering above them and standing still for a few seconds before diving in their direction.

"That's why!" Rocket answered.

Quill and Gamora crouched toward each other, each trying to protect the other instinctively. Most of the tentacles fell down all around them and tightened their grip on the hull, slowly engulfing the shipwreck into the sand and making it difficult for the two friends to stand on the moving slippery ground.

Peter adjusted his stance and gently took Gamora in his arms, readying them for departure. "Okay," he said for everyone to hear, "using the jet-boots when gravity's involved is tricky at best, and we're two so I'm pretty sure I don't have enough power to reach the Milano. Groot, do you think you can stretch out long enough to catch us mid-air?"

Inside the cargo hold of the Milano, Groot answered yes and started growing vines to fasten himself to the frame of the overhead door.

"I don't have time to teach you to how use them properly, but the trick for a steady trajectory with the jets is to stay still, and my legs and feet have to be as rigid and glued to each other as possible."

"Why are you telling me this?"

He activated his jet-boots to maximum thrust and they flew straight toward the Milano in a breathtaking jump. "Because I'm going to pass out."

"What?!"

They already were almost halfway through their ascent when she felt his hold on her loosening, his voice only a small breath whispering sorry and he went completely slack in her arms. Their course immediately deviated and as they started spiraling, Gamora's instincts kicked in. She deftly changed her hold on him, adjusting her position to catch his legs between hers and keep them as tight and straight as possible. The spiraling stopped but it was too late to correct their trajectory and she called for help, hoping Rocket could shift the Milano slightly enough so they wouldn't end up into one of the reactors.

Above and in front of her, she could see Groot's extended hand reaching to grab hers. They could make it, they had to. They just had to get a few inches farther, she could almost feel his fingertips grazing hers... And that's when the thrusters stopped working. She let out a surprised, anguished cry when they started to fall down again, then felt a wooden hand closing on her wrist. Her arm protested against the sudden stop and having to support hers and Peter's weight.

She looked up to see that Groot had jumped out of the ship to grab them, and was only propped up by numerous vines. He didn't seem to want to make a move to pull them up.

"Can you get us back to the ship?" Gamora asked, dreading the answer.

"I am Groot." The Flora Colossus replied to her, shaking his head.

"Alright… Well, thank you for saving us. Rocket, would you mind landing the ship soon? I don't think I can hold on much longer."

"As soon as we're out of that flarking sandy area. Hang on."

The flight lasted a few minutes during which Groot had secured his hold on his friends, growing vines surrounding and supporting them. Rocket spotted a piece of flat and solid ground and began their descent to what he hoped was a safe place, as slowly and gently as he could.

Once they were close enough to the ground, Gamora asked Groot to release them from his shell of wood and let go of his hand, falling back first to shield Peter from the landing. In spite of the low speed and short distance, the shock was violent and she rolled on herself, carried away by the kinetic force and lost grip on her friend despite her best efforts.

She stayed laying flat on the ground a moment before getting up slowly, wincing and shaking her head to get rid of the ringing in her ears, then staggered toward Peter's limp form sprawled a few feet away from her. She knelt by his side, carefully turning him on his back, mindful of his neck and back, and deactivated his mask. His face was ashen and covered with a thin layer of sweat, his wrinkles deepened in pained expression.

She gently tapped on his cheek, trying to rouse him. He groaned in answer, eyelids fluttering open.

"What happened?" he mumbled, clearly confused.

She released a sigh of relief and smiled at him, her hand leaving his cheek to rest above his heart. "You decided to take a nap in the middle of our escape and we couldn't get inside the Milano."

"Oh. Sorry about that." He tried to get up and failed miserably. "Ugh. Bad idea."

Gamora frowned at how paler the simple act to try and sit up had made him.

"What's wrong with him?"

Rocket's voice behind her made her turn around. He was standing beside her, surrounded by Groot and Drax, all of them wearing their spacesuits, armed to the teeth, and looking very concerned.

"I don't know..."

"I'm okay."

Gamora sighed and carefully stripped Peter off of his knapsack to hand it to Rocket. "There, here's what you'll need to repair the ship"

The raccoon took the bag eagerly. "You found a power converter?"

"We found better than that, buddy, so much better." Quill added weakly, the ghost of a smile adorning his wan lips. "You'll love that."

Rocket's whiskers quivered with doubt. "You sure you're okay?"

Peter dismissed him with a weary hand. "Yeah, yeah. Go and work your magic so we can leave this hellhole fast."

The raccoon nodded and left quickly, while Gamora turned down the communications. "You are not okay," she admonished him.

The former Ravager closed his eyes tiredly. "No, I'm not. But we need him a hundred percent at his task."

Gamora agreed wordlessly. "Can you walk back to the ship?"

Peter measured the distance separating him from the Milano. It was less than a minute walk, but to him it seemed like hundred miles away. He pondered his options and chose to forget his pride as he had lost it a long time ago anyway. "No."

He didn't even have the time to ask and felt himself being delicately picked up by strong yet soft wooden arms. It was strangely comfortable and he contentedly closed his eyes, letting himself being lulled out by his friend's rolling gait.


	11. 11-Bedside manners

**Trigger warning with this chapter : contains some surgical procedure without anesthesia and what can be seen as suicidal thoughts. If you're triggered by any of this, proceed with caution. And take care.**

I also would like to thank the anonymous guests for their reviews, since I couldn't reply to them personnaly. You and the registered reviewers are the best, sending you love!

Anyway, here's the new chapter, hope you'll enjoy it even if it has a darker feeling than the others.

* * *

 **11-Bedside manners**

They went in, closed the door to the main area, where Groot laid a barely conscious Peter on the table.

"What is making our friend ailing?" Drax asked.

"I'm not sure," said Gamora while trying to remove Quill's glove. "He complained about his wrist." She kept struggling but the glove didn't move an inch. "His hand is too swollen; I'll have to cut it."

Peter opened his eyes and raised his head suddenly. "What!?"

Gamora smiled and gently helped him lie down again. "The glove. I will have to cut the glove off to examine your hand."

"Tell that to Doctor Frankenstein here."

Gamora watched Drax returning from the back of the room with a laser saw in his hands.

"Is that a nickname?" While he had made progress with metaphors, The Destroyer was still failing to grasp the concept of nicknames.

"If you try and cut my hand, it will be." Peter groaned.

"Help me remove his glove, jacket and shirt." Gamora ordered.

"And no removing hands for now." Quill added feebly.

Once free of the obstructing clothes, they could assess the damage and it wasn't pretty. Peter's hand and arm were badly swollen, purplish lines starting from a dark, puffy spot on his wrist and spreading through his hand and arm, almost reaching his shoulder.

"Definitively not an electrical burn." Peter stated, feeling nauseous.

"It is more likely that one of those bugs bit or stung you. We need to stop the venom from spreading."

"I could make a tourniquet, but it could result in him losing his arm." Drax said.

"Better his arm than his life." Gamora answered somberly.

"You really need to work on your bedside manners." Peter groaned.

" _HA HA HA, YEEEESSS!_ " Rocket's voice rang out from the engines room.

"I told you he'd love it."

Gamora smiled in return. "Since I still don't know what _it_ is, forgive me for not being overjoyed at the moment." She prodded around the puncture wound. "I think we should drain the wound and try to extract most of the toxin."

"Good idea."

"I'll need a number 15 lancet, a kidney dish and sterilized gauze."

Drax nodded and started rummaging through the medicine cabinet. He found what they needed and came back to their improvised operating table.

Gamora gently stroke Peter's hair in a soothing gesture. "I can't give you anything for the pain as it might react badly with the venom."

"Yay, lucky me!"

She made a sympathetic smile and asked Groot and Drax to keep him steady while she made a small incision at the base of the weird looking wound. Peter tensed and black blood started to ooze sluggishly into the kidney dish. "Breathe in slowly through your nose and exhale by the mouth, I'm almost finished. You're doing well." Gamora said in a sweet and soothing voice as she started to put in the dressing to drain out the infected blood.

" _THIS IS FLARKING GOLD!_ "

"There, it's over. How are you feeling?"

"Just… peachy." Peter answered while trying to control his breathing. His arm was on fire and all he wanted was to curl up in a corner of the room and being left alone to cry, but it wasn't going to happen.

"Why would you be tasting of peach?" Drax asked as he was putting some towel-covered ice packs all around his friend's arm to numb the pain.

"Because I'm a sweet guy?" Peter joked, laughing feebly at Drax' confused face. Then he sighed contentedly when the cold started to work its magic. "Thanks, dude."

" _F.T.L TECH ALL THE WAY, BABY!_ "

Drax and Gamora paused for a short moment to take in what they had just heard.

"F.T.L, as in faster than light technology?" asked a dumbfounded Gamora.

Peter grinned widely. "Yeah, isn't that the greatest thing ever?"

"Is that compatible with a ship like ours?"

"Should be. And with Rocket in charge, no need to worry."

"What does that mean for us?" Drax asked. He was less tech-savvy than his friends and was curious about their excitement.

"It's new, incredibly expensive and only a few can master it for now," Gamora told him. "If it works, we would be faster than almost any ship in the Galaxy. This is..."

"Awesome!" Peter cut her short, grinning like a kid. "I can't wait to tell Rocket that we found it on a terran ship. He's going to jump out of his fur." He tried to sit up again and was hit by a wave of dizziness.

"And what are you trying to do exactly?" Gamora asked as she held him back. "You have to stay still and rest. We don't know what this is doing to you."

"I just wanted to get comfortable," Quill almost whined. "Lying on a flat hard table is not in my definition of relaxing, and I think my lower back is falling asleep."

The green woman reflected on his request. "I guess we could move you to the bench here. It's close enough from the medical supplies."

"Oh yes, please and thank you."

They cautiously helped him settle on the bench, his back resting against the wall as he insisted on sitting, and Gamora crouched next to him to look at his arm.

"I think the swelling has stopped."

Peter nodded. "Yeah, my skin feels less like it's about to crack. Thanks." He paused and looked at his arm. It was still an ugly sight and the purplish lines seemed to slowly progress toward his torso. Truth be told, he wasn't feeling better, but he knew there wasn't much they could do to fix him and he didn't see the point in upsetting his team more. "Well, since I'm not a medical emergency anymore… Groot, you should go and see if Rocket needs help fixing the ship and Drax, would you mind going to the cockpit and monitor the area? We have not been attacked by monsters for the past ten minutes and it makes me nervous."

After the two had left, the room stayed silent, Peter staring into space and Gamora waiting for him to talk.

"We should invest in a decent infirmary." Quill said after a moment, still staring blankly at nothing.

"It's not as if I had mentioned it several times."

"Yeah, you did. I don't learn, one of my issues."

Gamora snorted at the memory of their first meeting but quickly became serious again. "What did you want to tell me that you couldn't in front of our friends?"

Peter sighed. "Here I am, thinking I was being subtle."

"You're never subtle."

"Ha ha. True." He finally looked at her, all traces of his usual playfulness gone. "Those creatures, back in the terran ship… I don't want to end up like 'em."

She sat next to him and took his unharmed hand into hers, intertwining their fingers. "We don't know if that is what's happening to you."

"That's the problem, we don't know anything. You can't say for sure that I'm going to get better, that I'm not gonna turn into some radioactive flesh eating monster from hell."

Gamora was starting to see where this conversation was headed and she hated it with all her might. "As soon as we're out of here, we'll get you to the best hospital on Xandar. They will know what to do."

"I wish I had your confidence in the Xandarians' expertise on mutation induced by bug bites."

"If not in them, then I believe in you. You're resilient. You survived the infinity stone, you'll fight this."

Not knowing what to say as Peter withdrew into silence, she gently leaned against him and squeezed his hand.

"Promise me." He finally said, so quietly she almost missed it.

"What?"

"That if it gets worse and I'm not myself anymore, you'll end me before it's too late. Before I hurt or kill one of you."

Gamora stood up abruptly. "What? No. You can't make me promise you that, I can't…"

Peter took a deep, shaky breath and looked at her, eyes full of fear and unshed tears and mirroring her own expression. "Please."

"But the probability that you might turn into one of those creatures is low! First, we don't know for sure that the bug bites are the cause for what happened to the passengers and second, you're half terran. Maybe your alien DNA will not allow the mutation." She was grasping at straws and she knew it, but she couldn't face the situation. The simple thought of losing him, or any other member of their family of sorts, was devastating enough. So, killing him on purpose? No. No way. Never.

"I know that. But there's still a chance that I might turn into something that won't be me anymore. You were there, you saw what they became, how dangerous and unstoppable they were! I hate that I'm asking you to do that, especially after everything you've been through, but the guys have no idea what's coming and I can't bear the thought that I might kill you all… Please, I just need to know that if it happens, if you see that there's no coming back for me, you won't hesitate and you'll do what it takes to keep you and the rest of the team safe."

She finally gave in and nodded shakily, unable to use her voice. They stared at each other in silence, lost in their own world of sorrow and guilt until Rocket and Groot came in.

"Hey guys!" Peter greeted them in a falsely cheerful tone, swiftly wiping his eyes to regain some composure. "Are we ready to leave this hellish planet of doom?"

"Almost, but I have to make a few compatibility tests and some adjustments first. We don't want to explode on takeoff… But dude, we have a fully functioning F.T.L drive! I'm living the flarking dream, man." Rocket gave his friend a toothy grin, unable to contain his excitement.

Quill chuckled softly. "I bet you do, buddy."

The raccoon nodded, taking in his friend's appearance, pain and tiredness written all across his features. Not to mention that his arm looked really gross. "How you doing?"

"I'm fine."

Gamora scoffed at the obvious lie.

"I am Groot."

"Yeah, I agree with Groot, you don't look fine. In fact, you look like shit."

Peter huffed in annoyance. "I'm fine enough for you not to lose time over it. The priority is fixing the ship so we can leave, not making a presentation of my state of health."

"Friends, there is suspicious movement on our right side," Drax' voice interrupted them through the intercom. "It is approaching fast."

The Destroyer remotely switched on the screen in the main room so that the rest of the team could see what he was talking about.

"We really can't catch a break." Peter muttered.

* * *

Author note : About the F.T.L technology. When I wrote this, the only information I had was a thing James Gunn said about how they were able to fly very long distances in relatively short time, and that they used something different than F.T.L tech. I assumed he meant their technology was slower than F.T.L but the second movie kinda proved me wrong, but hey, that's the game^^


	12. 12-So long, suckers!

**12-So long, suckers!**

Rocket sighed and darted toward the bridge. "Fixing the ship now, I'm on it."

"I'll cover us from the ground." Gamora stated before opening one of the two circular airtight side doors and jumping outside.

Peter smiled at Groot, who was standing in front of him, obviously torn between wanting to help his friends fight and stay here to comfort his fallen mate. "I'll be fine, really. Go help Gamora defend us."

The Flora Colossus smiled back and nodded gently. "I am Groot."

Left alone, the former Ravager sighed and slightly shifted his position to ease the tension on his back. Staring at the screen, he tried to make sense of what looked like a cohort marching toward them.

"What is it, an army?" he said through his comm.

"This is what it seems for now." Drax answered from the bridge. He zoomed in on the blurred mass growing on the horizon and winced when an ankh cross became visible among the dark walkers. "The Universal Church of Truth."

"What!?" Rocket exclaimed next to him. He was currently testing the compatibility of their new tech, slowly increasing the power of the core reactor. So far, so good. "What are those zealot suckers doing here?"

"We passed by the wreckage of one of their templeships when you were in the decontamination shower."

Rocket's whiskers twitched at the recent memory. "Ah, yeah. Interesting times." He was still fighting off the fatigue and overall soreness the decontamination process had induced. "Ugh, I hate the Universal Church of Truth," he huffed, returning to his task.

Drax smiled at the slight déjà-vu. Rocket and Peter were more alike than they cared to admit. Meanwhile, the cohort had gained ground. "They are getting closer fast. How long before your repairs are completed?"

"About ten minutes."

"They will have reached us by then."

"Hey, I'm on uncharted territory with this new technology here," Rocket answered gruffly. "One wrong calibration and we could end up inside a sun or, I don't know, die in an explosion so big it could level this planet!"

"I was making a statement, not criticizing your work, my friend." Drax replied calmly.

"Rocket, do you think you can restore the shields and continue to do your tests at the same time?" Gamora asked through the comms.

"Maybe, why?"

"They have a plasma cannon."

Rocket swore loudly and repeatedly while fiddling furiously with the controls of the ship. "Okay, okay. I need you and Groot to come inside while I'm doing some tests. I don't want you to get fried by mistake."

Gamora agreed and she and Groot came back into the common area only to find Quill as white as a sheet and finishing changing his dressings. "Couldn't you wait for us to help you?!" She exclaimed in disbelief.

Peter leant his back against the wall, breathing out loud. "The things were completely soaked and it started to hurt bad again, and you were all busy doing much more important things. Like making sure we aren't about to be annihilated by an army of crazy murderous zealots."

She came closer to take a look at his work.

"I'm fine," he all but whined, fed up of being sick and weak. "Sort of." He added quickly after she glared at him.

"You did good work." she observed flatly, and handed him new cold packs that he put on his arm with relief.

"I've been injured and alone before, you know. It was kind of a trademark before meeting you guys."

"And yet you still act recklessly." she scolded him.

"I told you I don't learn. Repeatedly."

They exchanged smiles and Gamora was about to reply when something hit the ship and everything shook.

"What was that!?" Peter exclaimed through gritted teeth, holding his throbbing arm.

"Well," Rocket's voice answered him, "bad news is they have a flarking powerful plasma cannon, but good news is that our shields are now a hundred percent effective. No harm done to the ship."

"Great," Gamora quickly replied. "And do we have control back over the Milano's weaponry?"

"Now we do." the raccoon answered after a short silence. Gamora didn't miss a beat and rushed to the flight desk while another massive ray of energy hit the ship with a deafening bang.

"Lots of awesome things we can do," Peter said with a hint of sarcasm. "Is getting the hell out of here one of them?"

"Not yet!" Rocket roared over the sound of Gamora firing back at their opponents. "I need five more minutes!"

" _I HAVE FAITH!_ " A deep, hollow voice resonated from outside.

"He's blocking my shots with some sort of psionic force-field!" Gamora shouted but kept on firing, just in case.

Outside, hundreds of devotees had gathered around the ship. There were mostly black knights and a few cardinals, and one of the latter was standing in front of the ship, arms raised in a praising posture.

" _Faith that our high master has sent us this functioning ship to spread his truth across the Galaxy once again!_ "

"May I go outside and murder this one?" Drax asked eagerly.

"Another would probably take his place instantly." Gamora answered.

"Still, it would make me feel better."

" _Lost travelers! Convert and let yourselves believe in the one true God! Embrace the truth!_ "

"Thanks but we're pretty set on believing in ourselves." Peter commented, making his friends smile.

The cardinal sent a wave of psionic energy toward the ship, making the Guardians feel disorientated and nauseous.

Peter tightly closed his eyes and fought the bile rising up his throat. "Ugh. Everyone okay?" He smiled in relief when his friends all answered. "Not that I am not happy that we're still up and fighting, but why aren't we brainwashed or hallucinating right now?"

"Maybe they have been stranded on this planet long enough for their faith generators to deplete a little. From what we have seen, there are not much people to convert here." Drax answered thoughtfully.

" _Open the doors and let us in!_ " the cardinal ordered.

Gamora replied by firing at them with gusto and the cardinal recoiled in surprise. He sent another psychic wave which didn't hurt as much as the first one and Gamora kept on firing at him in particular. "He's getting weaker."

" _Fools! This cycle is nearing its end and only the power of the truth will help you get through! Convert!_ "

"What does he mean when he says this cycle is nearing its end?" Peter asked, already dreading the answer.

"Maybe they can see the signs of the next time-space jump..." Gamora mused, not liking it either. "We really need to leave now."

"What are those… things?" Drax, standing vigil on the other side of the bridge, pointed at a mass of creatures coming from the sandy area and running toward them at top speed.

Gamora left her seat to take a look and swore loudly.

"What's happening?" Peter asked from the common area, "The screen isn't showing me the whole scene."

"The mutants from the terran ship are coming at us!"

Rocket stopped in his tracks. "Terran? That awesome F.T.L technology is terran?"

"Yes it is," Gamora snapped back. "Now, focus on getting us out of here and we'll explain everything later."

Feeling the danger coming too, the cardinals and black knights redirected their energy toward the creatures, shooting at them rays of pure faith and other tricks in their arsenal, all for nothing. From where they were standing, Gamora and Drax could only witness with horror and a hint of awe the mutants breach every psionic barrier thrown at them and break the ranks of an army twice as numerous as them.

"They are different from the creatures that attacked us earlier," Drax said with a low voice. "How did you defeat them?"

"We didn't." Gamora answered somberly. "Nothing seems to kill them; we were only able to stun them long enough to escape."

Outside, the members of the church that weren't being ripped apart slowly realized that fighting against those creatures was a lost cause and started fleeing in all directions, leaving the side of the ship unprotected. Not paying much attention to the truthers running away from them, the mutants piled up in front of the closed side door, head tilted on the same side as if they were all waiting for something, before jumping on the ship and starting to claw at the hull, the ominous scraping sound resonating inside the ship.

"What are they doing?" Drax asked, dumbfounded.

"I think they're trying to tear off the airtight door." Gamora replied in a quiet tone. From where they were standing, they couldn't see what was happening. Nobody could, and that was making her nervous.

"Not on my watch!" Rocket exclaimed, jumping in the pilot's seat and hitting the enhanced shield button, releasing a wave of electricity which spread across the ship and hit the creatures. The scraping sound stopped immediately. "Everyone sit and fasten your harnesses, we're leaving!"

He tilted the ship a little as it took off to get rid of potential stowaways. "Ready to say your goodbyes to crappy planet?" He turned to take a look at his friends and noticed Gamora's crooked smile. "I'll take that as a yes. So long, suckers!" He pushed the engines to maximum capacity with delight and whooped when the ship reacted smoothly.

Soon they were far enough from the planet to watch it and its enormous sun from afar. A few seconds later, they witnessed the odd solar system vanish from the Universe as suddenly as it had appeared.

"Well, that was close." Gamora deadpanned.

"Yes. Had I not seen it I certainty would not have believed it." Drax replied, looking at the empty space before them.

"Agreed." Rocket added. "Okay, I've set the coordinates to Xandar, let's see how long it takes us to get there with this new baby!" He patted at the control panels with affection, but didn't have time to do anything as a clearly panicked Groot called for them from the common area, distress in his voice so palpable it could only mean one thing.

Something was wrong with Peter.


	13. 13-About Keeping Promises

**13-About keeping promises**

As soon as they heard Groot's call, the three guardians rushed to the room where they found Peter convulsing on the ground and Groot hovering above him, clearly lost on what to do to help his friend.

Thinking fast, Gamora gently put him on recovery position as best as she could, then grabbed a small pillow on the bunk next to her and slid it under her friend's head to prevent him from hitting it too hard on the ground. Then, she asked Drax to clear Peter's surroundings of possible dangerously sharp objects before asking Groot what happened.

"He started acting weird when the creatures attacked us, holding his head and speaking to things that weren't there, then collapsed and started shaking like this less than a second after the whole solar system disappeared." Rocket translated. "What do we do?"

"You get us to Xandar as fast as you can," Gamora replied, "and we try to find a way to stop whatever this is."

Rocket ran back to the cockpit and Peter's convulsions stopped, his body going completely slack except for the wounded arm that kept being animated by small yet strong tremors.

"The purple lines on his arm are spreading fast," Drax observed, his voice laced with worry. From where he was standing, he had a good view of Peter's upper back. The dark lines had spread from under Quill's shoulder blade to his spinal column, and were slowly creeping toward his neck. "How do we stop this?"

"I… I don't know." Gamora whispered shakily. She was terrified, the previous conversation between Peter and her playing in a loop in her mind.

"I am Groot!"

She and Drax turned their heads to find Groot handing them a stun-gun and pointing it toward Quill's wounded arm.

"You want us to shoot at his arm with this?" she asked, not sure of what he was meaning.

"It makes sense," Drax said. "The creatures that invaded the Milano were very sensible to electricity."

"The mutants on the terran ship weren't."

"We should try nonetheless. Even if the electrical shock does not stop this weird toxin from invading Quill's body, it might at least slow the progression down."

Gamora sighed and nodded. "Alright. But not with a stun-gun. Bring me the defibrillator please, at least we can adjust the intensity of the electrical current and monitor his vitals."

She grabbed some pillows and a thick blanket and headed for the table where she disposed the items to arrange a makeshift bed, then asked Groot to help her move Peter back on the table. One look at her friend's face was enough to make her heart ache. He was so pale that if it weren't for the reassuring thump of his heart under the palm of her hand she could have sworn he was dead.

With the help of Drax, she placed the electrodes all around Quill's arm and the monitoring ones on his torso, before adjusting the machine settings to the lowest intensity. She glanced at her friends for support and sent the first shock. As expected, Peter's arm tensed as a result of the muscular contraction, but what was more surprising was to see the dark lines under his skin move as if they were trying to flee and retract a little.

"I am Groot." The sentient tree said, his gestures indicating he wanted her to increase the intensity.

"Too much and it might stop his heart, I don't want to risk it…" Gamora shared her hesitation.

"I think he would want you to try." Drax answered softly, once again much closer to the truth than he realized.

"I am Groot!" Groot insisted, pointing at the dark lines which were growing back slowly.

"Damn it." Gamora slightly upped the intensity and pushed the button once again.

This time, the dark lines retracted significantly and Peter groaned and groggily woke up after a short while.

"Hey," Gamora greeted him with a relieved smile.

"Hey." Quill answered weakly, looking at her through heavy eyelids.

"I am glad to see you awake, my friend. You scared us." Drax said, patting him on his good shoulder.

"Sorry."

"Do you remember what happened?" Gamora asked softly.

"The mutants, when they were climbing on the hull uh… I sort of felt them. In my head."

"What do you mean?"

"It's not like I was hearing voices, but there were… feelings, emotions, like I needed to be with them and it was overwhelming. And when the whole solar system vanished, it felt like a limb was severed and my head split in two, and then you know, black out."

"This toxin is having some strange effect on you." Drax commented.

"I don't think it's venom anymore, I think it's some kind of parasite."

"I am Groot." the Flora Colossus nodded in agreement.

Gamora looked at both of them. "What makes you think it is?"

"The pain kinda numbed everything before, but now I can feel it moving –and it's the worst by the way, makes me want to rip my arm out –and those… emotions, the hunger, the need, they're still here in the back of my mind."

"You think it can control you?"

"I know it can. If Groot hadn't stopped me, I would have opened the door to let them in."

Groot nodded sadly. It had been an intense and frightening moment, where he didn't recognize his friend and had to use all his strength to hold him back. And when Peter's eyes rolled back in his head and he started convulsing on the ground, Groot thought for a terrifying second that he had somewhat broken him.

"You keep referring to the creatures from the terran ship as mutants," Drax thought out loud. "I assumed they invaded that ship like the ones which attacked us, but it is not what happened, is it?"

Gamora sighed. "No, it's not. We found stasis pods where the passengers and crew were resting. Most of them had died being devoured by some small bugs that looked like the first creatures we've encountered, but some of them had turned into those… monsters."

"And you think they were infected with the same parasite as you."

"I wasn't sure at first but now..." Unable to finish his sentence, Peter let out strangled cry, face scrunched in a grimace of pain as the dark lines crept once again on his torso and neck. Through his pained haze, he managed to grab Gamora's hand and lock eyes with her. She flinched when she noticed his bloodshot left eye had a fully dilated pupil, making it look awfully inhuman. It was happening, and he knew it. "Keep your promise," he said in a raspy voice before letting go of her hand and closing his eyes, a lone tear escaping and running freely down his face. "Please."

Gamora stepped backwards and took a deep breath, pushing away all the emotions that were making her head spin. She looked at Drax and Groot and asked them to stay away from the table, then turned the defibrillator to maximum power and hit the button. Quill started thrashing as his body was drawn tight by the electricity running through it before falling flat against the makeshift bed, the only noise filling the room being the continuous beep of the defibrillator indicating a flat line.

Not wasting any second, Gamora started doing compressions on her friend's chest to restart his heart, chanting prayers in her head to every god she knew about even if she didn't believe in any of them. Everything blurred around her, the only thing she could focus on being the small monitor which insisted on displaying a flat green line every time she stopped to check if the CPR had worked. The prayers playing in her head morphed into a lone plea escaping her lips against her will, urging him not to die and stay with her, with them. He couldn't do that.

And then it was back here again, the rhythm of a heart beating on its own. It was weak, but it was there, and her knees gave up under her. She found herself sitting on the ground, trying to catch her breath and fighting to regain some composure until she felt Groot hugging her awkwardly and her body betrayed her, a sob escaping her lips and tears rolling freely on her cheeks. She couldn't recognize herself as she wasn't the kind of woman to cry over a man, hell, she wasn't the kind of woman to cry at all. Except that in the past year she had allowed herself to bond deeply with the team and Peter wasn't any man. He was her confidant, her best friend, maybe more and now she was sure that she wouldn't be able to keep her promise to him.

"His breathing is normal again," Drax told her from what seemed to be miles away, his voice distorted by the blood rushing in her ears. "And the parasite seems to have stopped progressing. You saved him."

But was it still him? Was there still something to save? She couldn't help but ask herself those harrowing questions, her mind assaulting her with self-doubt. "Yes, but for how long?" she asked instead for the sake of it, getting back on her feet as soon as she trusted her knees to support her again.

Drax gave her a reassuring smile. "Friend Rocket," he asked loud enough for his voice to carry upstairs, "how long until we reach Xandar?"

"It's all new to me but I'd say less than an hour, maybe even less than thirty minutes." the raccoon answered in the same tone of voice. "How's Quill doing?"

"He is unconscious but fighting bravely." Drax sat on the bolted chair on his side of the table and invited Gamora to do the same on the other side. "What was the promise Peter asked you to keep?" He had his suspicions about what it was but still asked, seeing how much it was eating her and wanting to help ease her burden.

"He asked me to kill him if there was no saving him. Before he'd become an invincible killing machine." She answered after a short while. "I guess I am not that good at keeping promises." she added with a bitter tone.

"You saved him; I do not see how it implies that you have broken your promise."

"I know. But now I also know that I won't be able to see the limit. I will keep trying to save him even if it means risking him to complete this mutation and endangering us in the process."

"There is no need to torture yourself with suppositions. What counts is that for now, the parasite has receded and does not seem to be moving anymore. Furthermore, now that Groot and I are aware of Quill's wishes, if it has to be done we will help you. You do not have to bear this alone."

"I am Groot." the Flora Colossus agreed softly.

"Thank you." Gamora whispered, raw emotion showing on her gracious features.

They fell silent, each of them lost in his own world of worry. Despite the dangerous nature of their choice of life, it was the first time that one of them was actually at risk of dying and that there was nothing they could do about it. Trying to find a semblance of comfort in this dire situation, Gamora gently took Peter's hand in hers, the faint heat emanating from his skin a token that he was still alive, and started humming one of his favorite songs.

"Why are you denying yourself the right to be happy?" Drax asked after a while, his deep voice tearing her out of her reverie.

"I… what?"

"With Quill. You care for him."

"I care for each and every one of you, Drax."

"So do I, my friend. However, there is no denying that your relationship with him is different and that our friend Quill here has deep feelings for you. I have seen the way he acts around you."

"That's because he's a flirt." She sighed when the Destroyer's face scrunched in confusion. "I mean that's the way he acts around women. If you think about it, there hasn't been a space-station where we haven't met one or more of his conquests. And most of them were holding a grudge."

They both smiled at the memory of their last encounter with one of Star-Lord's exes, a petite arcturan with a deadly taste for throwing cutlery. It had been fun to watch Quill engage in a party of hide and seek with her throughout the station, less when he almost got himself spaced after trying to hide in a trash chute.

"I have not seen him revel in lust debauchery since we have met."

Gamora cringed at the turn the conversation was taking, but replied despite everything. Better an awkward conversation about Peter's tumultuous sex life than to think about losing him for good. "That's because we're always around. He doesn't live alone in his ship anymore, it must have impeded his bachelor ways."

"We halted in several places where he could have rented a room if he had wanted to. He did not and I believe that is because he found someone who piqued his interest more than any other woman could." Drax said with a knowing smile, obviously proud of himself.

"I am Groot."

She had forgotten Groot was here and she found him behind her, nodding in agreement with Drax. "Oh no, no. Not you too."

"I am Groot."

Gamora took a deep breath, pondering whether or not she should share what was really bothering her. "What if we don't get along and end up hating each other? It would break our dynamic as a team. It could endanger us all."

"You have been living together with all of us for a year, what is some more intimacy between you two going to change?" Drax said, his smile still on. Gamora was putting up a good fight, but he wasn't going to let go.

"I don't think I'm ready for this." She replied softly after a short while.

"Being happy?"

"I've done terrible things."

"We all have."

"You don't understand. The things I did for Thanos, despite everything he did to me to harden me and make me a heartless killer, I knew they were bad. I knew I was hurting people, but I did it all the same."

"You were scared for your life and the ones of the other children Thanos had under his control."

"It's more complicated than that, I… I was doing a good job. There was a part of me that wanted to be the best, that wanted _him_ to be proud of me. I am not a good person."

She stopped to look at her friend, afraid she might have said too much and had shattered an unlikely friendship she had worked so hard to build. Even if Drax had come a long way to understand what she and the other children of Thanos had been through, they rarely talked about the Mad Titan as it was still a sore subject for both of them.

"From what I understand of the few memories you shared with me," he said thoughtfully after an agonizingly long pause, "even if Thanos tortured you both physically and psychologically, he also took care of you in a fatherly like fashion. He made sure you were well fed and healthy, gave you a solid education and rewarded you when you achieved your goals. He called the other children your brothers and sisters. Everything he did was to ensure your loyalty to him, so I find it logical that you ended up trying to please him no matter what he was making you do. It does not make you a bad person; it makes you a victim as much as I am."

"It doesn't change the fact that there is a dark side of me that enjoyed killing people. What if Peter can't stand me knowing about it?" Despite Drax' kind and understanding words, she still had a hard time believing somebody could truly love her knowing how twisted she had been.

"You will have to ask him, but do you really think he is the kind of person who would judge you for your past actions?"

She looked at Peter and smiled. "No, he's not."

Drax was nothing if not persistent. "If your feelings for him are not of the romantic type, then I am glad you found a friendship as special as yours. But if they are, then it saddens me that you allow your fears to hinder your way to a different kind of happiness."

Unexpectedly, Gamora started to laugh, finally allowing herself to let go of some of the tension accumulated throughout this horrible day. "Drax the Destroyer, Mighty Warrior and Helpless Romantic. Who knew?"

Drax let out a small laugh that morphed into a sweet nostalgic smile. "I have not always been a Destroyer."

"You never talk about your family," Gamora replied with a soft voice. "You don't have to if it is still too hard for you, but when you're ready I'd love to know more about them."

"I already am, in my own way. The meals I cook for the team are Hovat's recipes and the stories I narrated to Groot when he was still a sapling were the ones I told my daughter Kamaria to lull her to sleep."

"I am Groot." the sentient tree corroborated gratefully.

"But I accept your kind offer, my friend. It will be an honor to share my memories of them with you."

"Thank you, Drax. For everything."

"Oh, wow!" Rocket's voice came from upstairs. "I guess my calculations were a wee bit off."

"Why, what's wrong?" Gamora asked worryingly.

Rocket didn't have time to answer as Rhomann Dey's face appeared on the communications screens. "Hello, Guardians. Would you mind explaining to me how your ship materialized in the Nova Corps' front yard without showing on any radar first?"


	14. 14-Relax, Gammy (final chapter)

**I can't describe how amazing it was to share this story with all of you guys. I'd like to thank each and everyone of you for the favorites and comments, it's been such a joy to see the little notifications in my mailbox 3 3**

 **I really hope this last chapter won't feel too sappy for you, but I couldn't help it^^**

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 **14-Relax, Gammy.**

A few hours later, Irani Rael a.k.a Nova Prime walked into a quiet hospital room with Denarian Dey to find the Guardians dozing in various positions all around Peter Quill's ailing bed. She smiled at the sight of a sound asleep Rocket rolled into a ball onto Drax' lap, whom was currently sitting on a too small folding seat and snoring softly. In front of her and way bigger than the last she had seen him, Groot was sitting against the foot of the bed, legs folded against his chest and roots stretched on the ground to the nearest window, making him look like a stump and giving the room a strange undergrowth-like atmosphere.

Then she glanced at Gamora, whom had been resting her head against the mattress and close to Quill's good shoulder a second before, and now was looking at her with exhausted and haunted eyes. They obviously had been through a lot. "You sent for me?"

Gamora nodded reverently. "Yes, Nova Prime, and thank you for coming to us."

Irani Rael pinched her lips. "You did not exactly leave me a choice for that matter, since you all refused to leave the hospital to answer our questions." She noticed how the former daughter of Thanos immediately tensed up and tightened her grip on Quill's hand. "But given the particular circumstances, I suppose we can set aside the rules of etiquette for this time."

Gamora almost deflated from relief. "Thank you."

"Care to tell me what happened, now?"

Then Gamora related the events of that horrible day in a detached manner, as if she had not been the one living them hours before. The crash, the fight against the invisible creatures, the rocky search for spare parts, the fight against the mutants that led to Peter's parasite infection. It all felt wrong, like if it had happened both years ago and to someone else. Rocket and Drax had joined her after waking up to fill in more details about their own experiences, the three of them answering almost all of the Xandarian's questions.

"And how is he doing?" Nova Prime asked softly, looking at Peter Quill's heavily bandaged arm and way too pale face.

"They managed to save his arm, but they are still monitoring him for any sign of infection. Recovery will be hard."

"I will make sure he has the best care."

"We are very grateful to you and are in your debt." Drax said deferentially.

"Nova Prime, I must insist that you make this traveling solar system your priority."

Irani Rael looked at Gamora once again. "And I must remind you that I have more pressing matters to sort out."

"You don't understand. That thing is traveling through space and time and is unpredictable. Its next stop could very well be Xandar. It could destroy your entire planet in a matter of seconds and you won't see it coming."

"Then what do you suggest we do?"

"We can give you the coordinates to where we were. An anomaly of this size must have left a signature trace that you could look for." Gamora looked at Rocket for confirmation.

"Yeah, it's possible," the raccoon thought out loud. "With your technology we could totally track this flarking thing. And next time it pops up in our vicinity, I'd say we bomb the hell out of it."

"We can't bomb this specific sun like that, Rocket. It could tear a hole into the fabric of the Universe." Gamora countered.

"But I've always wanted to bomb a sun! C'mon…"

"Rocket―"

"Alright!" Nova Prime cut them. "I will put my best scientists on it. And no bombing suns."

"Thank you." Gamora replied with relief while Rocket sulked in a corner.

"Now, back to the question you have yet to answer to. How come your ship entered our airspace and landed in front of one of the most secure buildings in the galaxy without showing on our radars?" Irani Rael deadpanned.

The Guardians looked at each other hesitantly.

"I am Groot."

"Yeah, he's right," Rocket followed Groot's idea, putting on his best innocent creature impression. "There must have been like a giant glitch in your equipment, because we called for help like a few light-years away and called, and called, and since you didn't answer and we had an emergency, we kinda parked in the easiest place we could find."

To say Nova Prime looked incredulous was the understatement of the century. She turned to look at Gamora, arms crossed, silently asking her to talk some sense into her teammate.

Gamora pursed her lips and nodded. "Yes, it's weird. You should check this out."

Feeling that his commander in chief was starting to lose her temper, Rhomann Dey talked for the first time since he had walked into that room. "Nova Prime, it's getting late and they could use some rest. I'm sure the Guardians will be happy to answer all of our questions after a good night of sleep, won't they?"

"Yes, we will." Gamora replied, silently thanking him.

Irani Rael sighed, not ready to give up yet.

"Plus, I'm sure the Guardians won't mind us taking a look at the Milano while they are getting their much needed rest?" Dey asked.

Gamora was about to object when Rocket beat her to the punch. "Yeah, of course! And while you're at it, if you want to, you know, show some thankfulness again and help us with some free repairs that'd be great."

"It's settled then. We'll see you tomorrow." Nova Prime said with a smile not quite reaching her eyes and left the room, followed by her denarian.

Gamora waited for them to be out of hearing range to express her bewilderment. "Are you crazy!? First you badly lie to them to hide how we got here and then you give them the keys to the Milano?"

Rocket chuckled. "Relax, Gammy. While Quill was in surgery I got us a second-hand, normal drive for the ship and replaced our pimped one with it. The F.T.L chip is in my bag. I don't want them to put their greedy hands on it either."

"Good idea." a small, gravelly voice came from the bed.

"Hey, look who's decided to join us after we did all the hard work."

"Define hard."

"I am going to fetch a doctor, it seems that his brain has been damaged." Drax said in all seriousness, already on his way to leave the room.

Gamora jumped out of her seat to catch him. "No no no no Drax, wait! It won't be necessary."

"But he does not remember the meaning of—"

"Not literally. It's just a manner of speaking."

"Yeah buddy, my brain's just fine. I think." Peter mumbled tiredly.

"Oh." The muscular man shrugged sheepishly.

"T's okay. You're tired. Well, you look tired. And… kinda wavy?" Quill said, trying to sloppily run his good hand on his face and missing it.

"Are you in pain?" Gamora asked softly.

"No, not yet. Drugs are still kickin'. Everything's floaty." He giggled at a thing only he could see.

Rocket chuckled before a big yawn caught him by surprise. "Well, at least he's in a good mood. I'm gonna go back to the ship to make sure the nova corps aren't breaking anything and catch some sleep. You coming, Groot?"

Groot nodded in agreement but slightly bent over Peter's bed first and placed some flowers on the pillow just over his friend's head. "I am Groot."

"Thanks Groot, you're the sweetest. Goodnight to you too." Peter happily mumbled, enjoying the way the delicate fragrance covered the aseptic smell of the hospital room.

Drax passed his arm over the foot of the bed to pat Quill's leg in an affectionate yet awkward manner. "I am pleased to see you awake and getting better, my friend. I believe you both have a lot to tell each other, thus I will leave you alone and go to rest." His last words were addressed to Gamora with such an unsubtle knowing look that she couldn't resist rolling her eyes.

"G'night Drax, sweet dreams!"

After Drax left the room fell silent, the quiet atmosphere only disturbed by the faint beeping and buzzing of the various machines monitoring Quill's state of health and the background sounds of the night life in the hospital.

"I'd never judge you or think less of you, you know." Peter said softly after a while.

"What?" Gamora replied, confused.

"The things you did for Thanos. The hold he had on you. Not judging you for it, ever. No matter what." Despite his great tiredness, he managed to lock eyes with her, hoping his words would sink in and break through her walls.

Finally realizing what he was referring to, Gamora retreated back into her seat. "You were awake?"

"Not fully. I heard some things, conversations, noises, but I couldn't interact with any of it. I felt like, trapped into a nightmare, probably hallucinating some of it and I had a hard time understanding what was real and what wasn't." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "So… this conversation between you and Drax really happened?"

"It has." Gamora answered softly.

"And Yondu was there too?"

"No."

"Oh. Good, good. That part was weird."

He fell silent once again, but not to doze off this time. He kept his eyes wide open and sweeping the room for something. Initially intrigued by his behavior, her curiosity became worry when Gamora noticed that his breathing was shortening and that his whole body was shaking slightly. "Peter, what's wrong?" she asked softly, slightly brushing his shoulder with her fingertips and recoiling when she startled him. "Peter, look at me."

"Is this real?" he asked in a shaky breath while stubbornly staring at the door.

"What?"

"I killed you," he muttered, lost in his thoughts. "You're all dead. I remember it now." He gulped and closed his eyes, his hand clutching at the sheets as if it was his last defense against insanity.

"Peter, listen to me. No one died. I'm alive, I'm here, with you. You're safe." She placed her hand over his, trying to find a way to get through to him. "The parasite is gone, you're safe, we're safe."

He finally dared looking at her, his face showing a mask of despair that made her heart ache. "But… I saw you die."

"It's the parasite; it made you see things while you were unconscious. It's over now."

"How can I be sure? How can I know for sure that this is not some elaborate construct of my mind to escape the reality that I turned into a monster and killed everyone I love?"

He was shaking badly now, and starting to hyperventilate. Not really thinking about what she was doing, Gamora carefully slid in the bed next to him, snuggled against his side and started to draw slow circles on his chest, shushing him gently until his breathing evened out.

"Gamora?" He asked after a while.

"Yes?"

"What are you doing?"

"I'm helping you calm down." Suddenly feeling awkward, she put herself up a little, leaning on her elbow. "Am I making you uncomfortable? Do you want me to go away?"

"No?" His voice sounded small and hesitant, almost childlike.

She narrowed her eyes in the semi-darkness. "Was that a question?"

Peter cleared his throat. "I… I don't want you to go, but you don't have to stay like that if you don't want to…"

"Okay then." She replied softly, laying down again and adjusting her position against his side for more comfort. She wasn't ready to say it out loud yet, but this new kind of intimacy with him felt good to her too.

Finally daring to give it a try, Peter shifted slightly to open his arm and allow her to come closer, holding his breath in apprehension of her possible refusal. He smiled happily and felt his heart swell in his chest when she slid wordlessly in his embrace and rested her head against his shoulder, sighing contentedly as he laid a soft kiss on the crown of her head.

They fell into a comfortable silence after that, enjoying the reassuring presence of each other in the relative darkness of the hospital room. But Peter being Peter, he couldn't help making fun of the situation. "I should almost die more often."

Gamora guffawed indignantly against his chest. "If you ever think of doing a stunt like that once again, I'll kill you myself."

"Sounds fair."

"Yes. I'm a pretty fair person."

"That's true. You're fair, and very pretty."

She could hear the trademark charming smile in his voice, and felt herself blushing against her will. Why would she react like that to what he said? It was corny and easy. Plus, Gamora didn't blush, it was too… girly. "You are such a flirt. I bet you've said that to every girl you courted." She said in the tone of a joke, hiding as best as she could how insecure she truly felt.

"I won't lie, I have." Peter answered earnestly. "But it's the first time it really means something to me," he said staring at the ceiling, searching for the stars he usually had over his head in these moments of introspection, his hand unconsciously drawing small circles on the soft skin of her arm. "Having been taken from my world and growing up with the Ravagers, I guess I've always avoided becoming attached to people. The way I treated women, I knew my mom would have disapproved of it." He snorted. "Hell, she would have disapproved of me becoming a space pirate too, and I did it anyway because it was easier, you know? No strings attached, no one to care about but myself, I couldn't get hurt. But when I first saw you outside the broker's shop, I thought you were the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, and I continued thinking so when you were beating my ass down. Then I got the chance to really know you, and I fell hard for you, and I kept falling every day since. You amaze me Gamora. You make me want to be the man my mom wanted me to become."

He slowly shifted his head to look at her and noticed she had closed her eyes. He chuckled softly as he realized he had courted her to sleep, and that he really didn't care. He would tell her how special she was to him the next day and every day after that, and even the thought made him happier than he had ever been.

He slowly started to doze off, lulled by the regular sound of her breathing and the wonderful heat of her body against his, the pain and fears of the previous day finally forgotten. Then he felt her shift slightly to move closer to him than he thought possible, and this time he was certain it was not an hallucination when he heard her mumble sleepily the four little words which had not been spoken to him for twenty-nine years:

"I love you too."

FIN.

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 **That's all folks! I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to leave any comment and don't hesitate to ask questions if you have some, I'd be happy to answer them.**


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